'""^^ KLi:.MKNTAi:V SCHOOL 
ACJIMrULTrUK 

A TFACHFR'S MANCAL 
TO ACCOMPANY HIU;ARD AND osTKRHOrPS 

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1911 



ELEMENTARY SCHOOL AGRICULTURE 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

NEW YORK • BOSTON - CHICAGO 
SAN FRANCISCO 

MACMILLAN & CO., Limited 

LONDON • BOMBAY • CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNE 

THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd. 

TORONTO 



ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
AGRICULTURE 

A TEACHER'S MANUAL 

TO ACCOMPANY HILGARD AND OSTERHOUT'S 

AGRICULTURE FOR SCHOOLS OF THE PACIFIC SLOPE " 

BY 

ERNEST B. BABCOCK 

It 

AND 

CYRIL A. STEBBINS 



Ncto fork 

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

1911 

AH rights reserved 



^i^-^- 



COPYKIGUT, 1911, 

By the MACMILLAN COMPANY. 



Set up and electrotyped. Published July, 1911. 



NortDooti ^resa 

J. S. Cashing Co. — Berwick & Smith Co. 

Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. 



©CI,A202(;i3 



ELEMENTARY SCHOOL AGRICULTURE 



INTRODUCTION 

It is the purpose of this little manual to help the ambitious teacher, 
who is not afraid of work, to begin the teaching of Agriculture. 
The writers believe that agriculture should be introduced in all 
elementary schools, but in making this statement it seems necessary 
to explain briefly what we mean by Elementary School Agriculture 
and how we think it should be introduced. 

Agriculture, in the mind of the careless thinker, is sometimes 
synonymous with farming. Now farming is a noble and, fortunately, 
an increasingly attractive occupation, but the term Agriculture has 
a vastly bigger content than the term farming. Agriculture is both 
a science and an art. It is, in fact, a great composite of the funda- 
mental sciences and, during the progress of civilization, has come 
to include a long list of elementary arts and technical industries. 
Even in the high school we find only a few of the fundamental sciences 
that go to make up the great science of Agriculture and fewer still 
of the elementary arts. Far be it from the elementary school to 
teach science as such. There is less danger of this than ever before. 
The mission of nature study has been fulfilled in part. It is now 
generally believed that natural history as a school subject can be 
made a powerful educative agent. On the other hand, the manual 
arts employed in Agriculture comprise a most valuable sort of 
practical training for the young. 

*' Agriculture on its practical side contains a large fund of material 
well adapted for teaching purposes to those untrained in the sciences 
underlying its various operations. Right modes of planting may 
be taught without much reference to why some seeds are placed 
deeper than others. Good tillage can be taught, even though the 
laws of capillarity, soil temperatu;:e, and the like are not understood. 
Legumes may be grown and plowed under and other modes of soil 
enrichment may be practiced without much knowledge of bacteria 

B ^ 1 



2 INTRODUCTION 

or of the chemistry of fertiHzers or of plant physiology. Seed 
selection may be carried on quite extensively with little or no knowl- 
edge of the laws of heredity. Feeding one ration to obtain milk 
and another to produce flesh need not involve much knowledge of 
the physiology of assimilation or of the chemistry of digestion. 
Spraying for insects and fungi as a protective measure need not im- 
ply an extensive knowledge of entomology or cryptogamic botany. 
Grafting, budding, and other forms of propagation need not rest on 
a very broad knowledge of plant anatomy and physiology. 

" Learning to do the things in the foregoing summary has some 
very decided educational values. One of its values lies in the fact 
that it stores the mind with a fund of experimental knowledge. 
This makes it vital to one's thinking. It is also valuable as a stimu- 
lant to the inquisitive mind looking for the real reasons why things 
transpire as they do. It is further valuable as affording a reservoir 
of material for example or illustration to one in pursuit of a law or 
principle in the natural world." ^ 

Now, if learning to do these things — the mastery of the elemental 
arts of agriculture — is valuable in itself, how much more valuable 
must such practical training become if it is preceded or accompanied 
by proper instruction regarding those natural phenomena and laws 
upon which such practice actually depends ! This is one function 
of nature-study. Even in the primary grades pupils may extend 
their acquaintance with natural objects and phenomena in such 
a way that when they come to agriculture as a grammar school 
subject they will have a background of experience which is such an 
advantage to any one who studies this subject. For this reason 
we urge the strengthening of nature-study, including gardening in 
the primary grades as a preliminary step, if possible, to the intro- 
duction of agriculture in the grammar grades.^ 

But many conmiunities desire that Agriculture be introduced 

' " The Place and Function of Agriculture in the Curriculum," W. R. Hart, 
Nature Study Review, vol. 5, no. 6, Sept. 1909, p. 163. 

'See " General Plan for Organization of the Nature or ' Science ' Teaching 
in Elementary Schools," E. B. Babcock, Sierra Educational News, Vol. VI, 
no. 1, pp. 49, 50. 



INTRODUCTION 3 

into the grammar grades immediately and many county boards 
of education are sanctioning such a step by the recognition of some 
particular textbook on Agriculture. In districts where the step 
is taken without previous warning, grammar grade teachers find 
themselves confronted by difficult problems. The question arises 
at once, How shall I begin? It is certain that to begin with the 
mere reading of a text, no matter how excellent, will not provide 
the practice work — the doing element — which is so desirable. 
The vitality of agriculture in the common school will be found in 
the school garden and in the class room experiments. The skillful 
teacher will continually stimulate the activities of the pupils in the 
direction of original experimentation, bringing them to meet problem 
after problem. The common measure of man's power is his ability 
to handle new situations. The pupil who has answered by him- 
self a problem question in a satisfactory manner has added much 
toward character building. Many such experiences give the power 
which is necessary to make one a force in one's community. 

Another means for awakening interest in boys and girls is the 
organization of school agriculture or gardening clubs. This may 
be either a local affair or affiliation may be arranged with a general 
movement such as the Junior Gardening Clubs now being organized 
by the College of Agriculture at Berkeley. Information regarding 
this movement will be sent upon application. 

The success of all these activities in public school Agriculture 
depends largely upon the enthusiasm and resourcefulness of the 
teacher. But, in the beginning of new work, definite suggestions 
are often invaluable. It is the aim of this manual to give such 
suggestions, first, for the school garden, second, for schoolroom 
experiments supposed to lead up to and accompany the garden and 
the textbook work. 

Notebooks are helpful in the higher grades if they are used as 
means to an end and do not become notebooks for the sake of note- 
books. A notebook is potential, just as is a textbook, in the direc- 
tion of squeezing the vitality out of a teacher and out of the pupil 
and out of the subject. The common measure for a teacher is his 
perspective, the depth of his point of view. Too often the school 



4 INTRODUCTION 

exists for the school's sake, the course of study is compiled for the 
sake of the course of study, and the pupil is marched through it 
rather than the course of study marched through the pupil. The 
teacher too often teaches the child for its own sake rather than for 
the sake of the child's usefulness to its neighbors and the world. 
Further, he is liable to see in this new call for Agriculture nothing 
but Agriculture, and not its value as a means to an end, the end being, 
(1) to create a sympathy for farming, for country life; (2) to read- 
just the individual to his community living ; (3) to give new direc- 
tion to the old subjects in the curriculum. 

Therefore, let us make elementary school agriculture stand for 
something more than manual art, something more than nature- 
study. Let us use it as a means for adjustment to the needs of a 
progressive civilization, in which true culture is not considered as 
a vague ideal, but an intelligence that expresses itself in real service 
to humanity. 

School Gakdens 

Children, inclosed by the walls of the schoolroom and imprisoned 
in spaces bounded by the desks, are much like fish in a glass bowl. 
The space in the case of the fish admits of limited movements and 
unnatural living. The necessary amount of oxygen and nutriment 
derived from the vigorous natural living and the activity caused by 
life bubbling over is denied the captive. Individual retrogression, 
followed by fungus diseases and death, is the usual result for the fish. 
To the boys and girls the desks admit of slight stretching and an 
aggravating amount of twisting and turning, as any teacher will 
testify. This is a poor substitute indeed for that which the system 
demands. In twists and turns Nature rebels against inactivity. 

The present school life needs something too large or too active 
to be brought into the schoolroom, something which will make the 
boys and girls immune from the attacks of the schoolroom fungus 
which fills them with the mycelium of dislike for the school, which 
makes books and desks their memory focus, and which finally drives 
them from the influence of the school. While window boxes and 
aquaria have their reasons for being, we are glad that teachers can 



INTRODUCTION 5 

bring neither school gardens nor creeks into the schoolroom. We 
sometimes forget that the schoolhouse with its apparatus is made 
for the children, not the children for the schoolhouse. 

The baby with its amazing contortions and physical reactions 
demonstrates beyond a doubt the rapid development of the motor 
centers as compared with the sense centers. The school should 
offer something more than recesses to meet this fact, particularly 
in the lower grades. The flow of motor impulses can only be checked 
for a short time, so it necessitates direction of, rather than attempts 
for suppression of, these impulses. Rather than to try to suppress 
the physical bubbling over expressed in running, etc., let us direct 
the run, the jump, and the kick. 

School gardens offer the easiest solution of the problem of direc- 
tion since they use and use well the surplus energy. To observe 
a hundred children at work in the gardens, spading, hoeing, raking, 
from the viewpoint of the enormous amount of energy expended, 
one stands fully convinced of the unnaturalness of long study and 
recitation periods, and realizes the responsibility of teachers in direct- 
ing and controlling the energy. They need assistance from the 
course of study. For a short time skillful teachers may keep ener- 
getic classes inactive yet full of attention, but gradually the flow 
of bodily energy, danmied up as it were, trickles out in mischief. It 
is not strange that after Nature has been giving satisfaction to the 
motor impulses of the children in the gardens, they go back to the 
schoolroom reluctantly yet physiologically better prepared for inside 
work. 

Does not the problem of discipline resolve itself into a problem 
of proper oxidation and the direction of the resultant energy? A 
bad boy is the result of misdirected energy. Something blighted 
his natural development. Fasten his energies to a spade and the 
" badness " seems to dispel itself in the ground. Can we not use 
the hint given us by this experience with many misunderstood 
boys? 

In a course of nature-study, the gardens furnish the center from 
which radiate many and various interests inorganic and organic 
in nature, 



6 



INTRODUCTION 



Continuity, not isolation of subject matter, is essential. The 
potency of the school garden as a unifying element in the school 
work is very great and is illustrated by the diagram. Children in 
the garden see insects, other animals, and the effects of various natu- 
ral forces, and are thus naturally introduced into new fields. Not 
only are these factors now closely related to the lives of the children, 
but the school itself may be Hnked to life. The old subjects in the 

DVIJAW m R!i:L.ATIl©!NJ 

T O 

/\H\MALS 







Fig. 1. 



curriculum may be given new direction. The criticism on the pres- 
ent school system should not rest so much upon the subjects taught 



INTRODUCTION 7 

as upon the direction of these subj ects. With gardens under way the 
problem in arithmetic may be one grown out of the children's ac- 
tivities in the garden, instead of one devised by the teacher and one 
far removed from the children's interests. This illustration (Fig. 1) 
will suffice to point out one large aim of the school garden — to 
readjust school work to life work. 

The garden carries a world with it, patterned after the universe. 
It is potential in the direction of an embryo conmiunity in which 
the children are brought in contact with those factors and those 
forces which make for real community life. The life of the present 
generation is growing so very complex that it demands of the coming 
generation high specialization in many lines. Specialization caused 
by competition tends to emphasize economic life. The school 
garden will flourish, if for no other reason, so long as the world 
kneels to money, for the proper handling of soil and seeds which 
represent the stored energy of Nature, the control of insect pests, 
the prevention of fungous diseases, all culminate in the perfect fruit, 
a product of man's energy, both mental and physical, standing for 
dollars and cents. 

More and more are we brought to see that the present complex 
life calls for the individual with a broad social perspective. The 
gardens offer opportunities in forming correct social views and habits 
early in life. In modern schools many children, many individual 
gardens, community gardens, public paths, public tools, public 
water, and many other relations both public and private, make a 
social life no less complex and difficult to handle than that of 
a city. Early in their garden fife, the children are taught to respect 
those things which belong to their neighbors ; to realize that com- 
munity^ property belongs to the whole not to a part, and that each 
must offer his support ; to understand that the policy which is best 
for the majority must be supported ; to see the justice in ten of 
a class insisting that the eleventh remove objectionable weeds from 
his garden, or the justice of eminent domain ; to feel, in general, 
that each represents but one small part of a great whole and that 
each must do his best to fit in smoothly and laugh with the world 
rather than to be shoved aside to cry alone. 



8 INTRODUCTION 

Habits of care formed through continual attention to clean tools, 
etc., will lessen the friction of the children's lives. 

Continual attention to seeding, growing, spraying, harvesting, 
will prevent some of the waste characteristic to California. 

The complexity of our national life is brought about by man's 
power to absorb and interpret his experiences and by his ability to 
apply these experiences in his own conduct. By means of school 
gardens pupils gain experiences which help them to interpret natu- 
ral forces and which develop the power to apply these forces in 
their own conduct. 

From the viewpoint of pleasure alone the school garden has its 
reason for being. If red cheeks, bright eyes, abounding joy and 
interest are indicative, the garden work is worth while as a pleasure- 
giver. Many a tired, patient housewife has drawn from her little 
garden in the backyard comfort and rest, and has been rejuvenated 
thereby. The soil and plant life are ever suggestive of vitality, 
courage, and peace. But there are too few home gardens and too 
many empty cans in the backyard. Shall we not inoculate the boys 
and girls with the garden spirit which makes for vigorous manhood 
and womanhood and which is so potential for joy? 

While it is to be lamented, it is none the less true, that for many 
years " farmer," in the public mind, has stood for an uneducated, 
ungainly, uninteresting human being clad in overalls, an unattractive 
future to any boy, influenced by a biased people. We want the 
school gardens to get a chance at the boys and girls before a prej- 
udiced influence reaches them. We want them to see that the 
schools, the universities, and the world are getting behind the 
farmer; to feel that it is an honor, rather than a disgrace, to be 
a countryman ; to see that the world has demanded farmers with 
the same breath that it has ridiculed them ; all to create a sentiment, 
productive in sympathy for farmers and farm life. 

The Garden Plot 

Select a well drained sunny plot which can be easily fenced if 
necessary. If possible, lay out the plot with a wind break on the 
north. 



INTRODUCTION 



9 



Size of Plot'. — Determine the size of the plot by (1) the number 
of pupils to undertake the work, (2) the size of the individual gar- 
dens, (3) the amount of energy to be expended. 

We believe in school gardens for all classes. However, it is best to 
start in a limited way with one or two grades. The fifth and sixth 
grades take up the study very readily. 

Individual gardens 3X5 feet for the low classes and 6X8 feet for 
the high grades make convenient sizes. Give each pupil an individual 
plot and select one for yourself, for you need a garden. Arrange for 
an experimental garden and a community plot for each grade or 
group. Each group should have an experiment under way. 

The Plan. — With data in hand assist the children to plan and 
make a drawing of the gardens. Bear in mind ease of access to each 
garden from three sides, as well as the general appearance of the 
garden as a whole . 
Assign the gar- 
dens, marking 
each garden on 
the plan. A 
model plan is 
shown in the ac- 
companying dia- 
gram. 

Preparation of 
Plots. — If the 
plot is of consid- 
erable size, have 
it plowed and 
harrowed ; other- 
wise have the 
children spade 
the plot. Do 

not kill the interest with too much drudgery. We observed three 
boys working up an acre of ground with a hand plow. It was fun 
the first day, work the next, drudgery the next, and the final 
result was loss of interest. The plot was never seeded. 




10 INTRODUCTION 

Laying out of Garden. — Ask the children to bring tools to the 
school. Have the boys make stakes, three to each pupil, fourteen 
inches long, 1? X U inches, sharpened at one end. These should 
be painted white. With a tape measure, yard sticks, stones or mal- 
lets, two or three balls of string, and a plan, you are ready to lay out 
the gardens. Half a dozen boys with work planned for each can 
lay out a plot a half acre in size in one hour by using the following 
method. Let two boys measure and mark off the four corners. 
Direct one boy to follow carrying stakes, another accompanying 
him to drive the same. Have one boy carry string. Have the 
string stretched around the four corner stakes. Let boys with yard 
sticks measure off distances according to the plan and mark the 
places for stakes on two sides. Caution the boys to see that the 
stakes are always driven on the same side of the string. Let boys 
with mallets and stakes follow, driving the stakes carefully in their 
proper places. With the stakes driven on opposite sides direct others 
to stretch string across connecting the corresponding stakes. The 
string need not be broken at each stake. It may be merely wound 
and carried on to the next stake. AVith stakes driven at their re- 
spective distances at the two remaining sides, treat as above with the 
string. The garden now has the appearance of a great cobweb with 
the string crossing in such a way as to outline each garden. The 
whole class may now be used to drive stakes at each intersection 
of the string. Use great care to have the stakes driven perpendic- 
ularly and on the correct side of the string. With the stakes in 
place unwind the string. Do not let the string remain. It stretches 
and is easily broken. Instruct the children to level the paths and 
to lower them two inches. Thus the plots are slightly raised, giving 
an attractive appearance to the gardens and making drainage more 
ideal. 

If possible let the children begin at once to spade up the soil. 
With the soil carefully cultivated the gardens are ready for seed- 
ing. Teach the children the '' trench " method in spading. Dem- 
onstrate in your own garden at the proper time (1) how to 
spade, (2) how to fine the seed bed, (3) how to plant seeds, (4) how 
to cultivate, (5) how to thin out. For detailed suggestions on these 



INTRODUCTION 11 

points consult Bailey's "Manual of Gardening," Hall's "The 
Garden Yard " or other practical treatises. See Appendix C. 

Select seeds that are quick hardy growers, — radishes, lettuce, 
peas, beets, etc., particularly if the planting season is at hand and 
short as to growing time. Community plots may be devoted to 
mass flower effect, to miniature parks, to economic plants, etc. 

A teacher while proudly showing visitors the school gardens well 
under way was asked what was to be done with the productions. 
She did not know. Do not start the gardens unless a definite aim 
is in view. The products may be used as follows ; (1) to market the 
vegetables and flowers, (2) for home use, (3) for seed, (4) for vege- 
table dinners, (5) for the school lunch table, (6) for flower and 
vegetable shows, (7) for a Thanksgiving gift to the needy in the 

vicinity. 

Start economic plants such as sugar beets, flax, wheat, castor 
beans, pop corn, etc. These crops may be harvested in the fall term. 
They not only point to the work of the world, but the children do 
some of the work. It is a short step from the fiber in the flax plant 
to the world's method in clothing its people. 

To harvest the sugar beets, take up the beets, cut off the tops 
about one inch below the leaves, and shred the roots with graters. 
Put this shredded material into a clean cloth bag and press out the 
juice. To prevent fermentation and for purposes of purification, 
stir a small amount of lime into the Hquid. After making carbon 
dioxide (dilute hydrochloric acid and chalk in a bottle fitted with 
a tight cork and bent glass tube) pass it through the juice, 
causing impurities to settle. Siphon the pure juice into an- 
other dish, filter and boil for several hours. The resulting sirup 
cannot be refined to obtain sugar crystals but the children may 
profit by the lesson. If possible visit a sugar factory and make a 
comparison of the class process and the business man's process. 
Study the method of the world in furnishing sugar to its people. 

To harvest the flax, pull the flax plants up by the roots, remove 
the seeds and leaves, place the flax plants under water for three 
to six days. If, at the end of this period, the stems break readily 
and the fiber seems to be loose, place the plants in the sun to dry. 



12 INTRODUCTION 

After drying break the woody matter. With a comb, made by 
driving nails through a piece of wood, comb out the fiber. Weave 
the fiber into cloth. Study the method of the world to clothe its 
people. 

With the gardens seeded after completion of lessons I and II the 
regular lessons may be taken up to be interrupted for attention to 
the young plants as it is needed. In a few days many plants will 
need thinning out and cultivation will be necessary. Demonstrate in 
your own garden thinning and cultivation, bringing out by question- 
ing the reasons for each step, then direct the children to their own 
plots. Ere this the children will have met many factors at work 
in their gardens. These will suggest new fields of study, insects, 
birds, the weather, etc. Study these factors as the children meet 
them. See lessons IV to XI inclusive. 

Type Lessons 

As suggested before, the garden is a little world of its own, pat- 
terned after the universe. Nearly all of the factors which constitute 
one's environment are found at work in the school garden. When 
the children meet these new factors the special representation should 
become the type to study. If the larvae of the cabbage butterfly 
are destroying the cabbages, or the grasshoppers are attacking the 
garden plants, take one as a type and let it introduce the children to 
the large field of insect life. 

After the '' type " has received careful attention compare other 
animals (if the type be an animal) to it. Keep close to type studies. 

Suggestive Lessons 

The following series of lessons have been successfully used in 
elementary school classes. They have served to prepare pupils for 
successful gardening and to introduce the study of Agriculture. 

Have each lesson summarized, and fill in subject matter as a need 
is felt. Let each experiment direct conduct. Continually ask 
yourself this question: '' How will this work direct conduct? " 

In each experiment and each study that is taken up, look beyond 



. INTRODUCTION 13 

the matter directly at hand. See more than the individual study. 
Examine it to see how it is a part of the unity of nature. 

Emphasize individual work. Each child should be given a specific 
problem. When differences arise, let the children devise an experi- 
ment. Encourage experimental study at home. 

By all means perform the experiments. They take a little extra 
time, but the results are worth it. Showing, not telling, is the key- 
note in proper teaching. 

Lesson I is suggestive for the use of Chapters III, IV, and part 
of V in " Agriculture for Schools of the Pacific Slope," Hilgard and 
Osterhout. In this lesson, as in others, to follow the writers' aim is 
to give such material as will direct conduct in the growing of plants 
in the school garden. 

Lesson 2 directs the application of Chapters I, II, and part of V. 

Lesson 3 recapitulates the work of the first two lessons in part. 

Lessons 4 and 5 help in the use of Chapter I. 

Lesson 6 deals with parts of Chapters IV, V, and part of XII, 
relative to the work of stems and roots. 

Lesson 7 suggests the use of Chapters VI and VII. ■ 

Lesson 8 helps to introduce Chapter VIII. 

Lesson 9 suggests the use of Chapters XV and XVI. 

Lesson 10 suggests a method for the application of Chapter XVIII. 

Lesson 11 will aid in presenting Chapter XIII. 

These lessons are only suggestive as to the use of the text. It 
should be used to supplement the lessons. 

The length of time given to each lesson should be determined (1) 
by the value of the subject matter in directing conduct, (2) by the 
interest of the class. 

The lessons may be used in any grade from the 5th to the 8th in- 
clusive. We have found it best to begin agriculture in the 5th or 
6th grade. 



LESSON I 
THE SOIL 

Unit of Instruction. — The soil. 

General Topic Aim. — To interest the children in soil, to teach 
the relation existing between soil and themselves. 

Specific Lesson Aim. — To teach the composition of the soil, 
the characteristics of clay, sand, and humus, and the relation of 
water to each. 

Children's Aim. — To learn more about soil, since life depends 
upon it. 

There are two ways of introducing new subject matter to 
children: (1) formally, — ''Children, this morning we are going 
to study the cabbage butterfly;" (2) by making the children 
feel the need of the new subject. There may be points of interest 
in the study of the cabbage butterfly, but how much more vital 
to the child is knowledge of this insect if it has attacked the 
cabbage plants in the child's garden and he realizes that it is a 
question of spoiled cabbages or the death of the pest. In the 
one case the interest is superficial, in the other it is vital. 

The first step in any lesson is to make the children feel the 
need of the work at hand. Develop in the minds of the children 
the value of agricultural and soil study by leading them to see 
the relation of the soil to their own living, that without soil 
there could be no homes, no food nor life of any kind. Ask them 
where the glass in the window came from, the source of their 
clothing, food, etc., leading the children to see that the real source 
is the soil. From the soil radiate the factors which constitute 
our environment. (Fig. 2.) 

14 



THE SOIL 



15 



GLASS 



CLOTHING O 



,,<!) COTTON 



SAND 0- "^ 



SANDPAPER 



PACKING 



^ MACHINERY 

""""O moN 

/ 
/ 

d) UTENSILS 




CATTLE 



FLAX 



/' \ SHEEP (;> _^ 

/ \ CLOTHING ETC. 

CLOTHING (^ X^ MEDICINE 

Fig. 2. 



Development of Lesson 

Soil is composed of clay, sand, humus. In test tubes or small 
dishes of any kind give the children individual samples of clay 
and sand. 

Sand has Coarse Texture, Clay has Fine. — Class examine these 
samples and tell me the names for each. Now look closely so 
that you may answer the following questions: (1) in which are 
the particles larger ? (2) in which do they roll about more easily ? 
Would you rather plow sand or clay? Why ? Let me draw a 
picture of sand and clay particles. (Fig. 3.) 

The brick chimney is built by pihng one brick upon another. 
If we should pile sand particles one upon another, what would 



16 



ELEMENTARY SCHOOL AGRICULTURE 



we build? "Funnels." 
particles. Would you 







The same would happen with clay 
hke to know the name of these funnels 
in soil? Capillary tubes. 
In which are the tubes larger ? 
Color of Sand, Clay. — 
Notice the shining sand par- 
ticles; what color do they 
give to the sand? What is 
the color of the clay? 

The characteristics of hu- 
mus resemble more nearly 
those of clay than those of 
sand. (Pass out samples of 
soil containing humus . ) What 
do you find in this soil not found in the other samples ? What does 
it look like? 

(With a flame of some kind heat the humus in a tin until it smoul- 
ders.) Where have you noticed this odor before ? What is humus ? 
I found this humus beneath a tree. Where did the vegetable matter 
come from? Name other sources of humus. 

Humus and Clay are Cold. Sand is Warm. — (Fill three cans with 



Fig. 3. 




TRANSPIRATIONAL LOSS 



EVAPORATION 
LOSS 



WATER TABLE 



tiff I 




Fig. 4. 

humus, clay, and sand; put a thermometer in each to determine 
the temperature.) Sand is too warm, clay and humus are too cold ; 
what shall we do? " Mix sand and clay." How can we find out 



THE SOIL 



17 



whether John is right? '' Experiment." Yes, to prove a theory 
one must experiment. (Have children see that one experiment 
alone may not furnish proof.) 

Place in a medium-sized bottle a small amount of humus, sand, 
and clay. Add water till the bottle is nearly filled. Shake well and 
set aside. 

Relation of Sand, Humus, and Clay to Water. — (Develop the 
great work of water in the environment of man. Put the drawing 
upon the board. (Fig. 4.) How does the water get to soil natu- 
rally ? Artificially ? By the way, is it better to sprinkle or irrigate ? 
How shall we find out? Yes, by experimenting. This we shall do 
later. (Create questions to be answered by experimentation.) 




—CLODDY SOIL 



MOSQUITO 
NETTING 



s; ^WATER 



^-_. 



Fig. 5. 

Gravitational Water Moves Rapidly in Sand and Cloddy Soil, Slow 
in Humus and Clay. — I have three glass tubes, one filled with sand, 
Q 



18 ELEMENTARY SCHOOL AGRICULTURE 

one with clay, and one with cloddy soil, as shown in Fig. 5. The 
material is held, as you will notice, with cloth tied over the bottoms. 
I am going to pour the same amount of water into each. In which 
do you think the water will get through first? Why in the sand, 
Mary? ** Because the particles are larger and the tubes are larger," 
How many agree? Since we all agree, is there any need of trying 
the experiment? Why? Yes, to prove Mary's theory. (Pour 
the water into the tubes.) The sand wins. (When children dis- 
agree as to their ideas, let each choose his tube and imagine a race.) 
Gravitational water carries food to the plant from the surface soil 
on its way down. Why is it called gravitational water? 

Gravitational Water may be Conserved by Loosening the Top Soil, 
by Growing Plants, by Contour Plowing, by Cultivating the Seed 
Bed. — We have found gravitational water to run quickly through 
sand and cloddy soil. What do these experiments teach us about 
conserving gravitational water ? Let us be particular in ridding the 
seed bed of clods when we start the gardens. 

Trees and Undergrowth Prevent Run-oflf . — What becomes of the 
water that strikes the side of a hill? Yes, it is called the run-off. 
The run-off causes floods. What happens each year along the 
Sacramento River during a wet winter? What causes these floods? 
How can the run-off be prevented? Yes, each tree has a mass of 
roots, each tree is like a tub, and keeps the water from being lost. 
(Enlarge on the value of forestry. See Chapter 23 in text.) Con- 
tour plowing also prevents the run-off. 

Capillary Water Climbs High in Clay. — Empty the glass tubes, 
keep the wet earth and set aside. Mix into balls sand and clay, 
sand and humus, clay and humus ; moisten and set aside for the next 
lesson. Fill the tubes with dry sand, clay, and cloddy soil. Stand in 
a basin of water. (See Figs. 20, 21, pages 45 and 46 in text.) In 
which will the water climb up the highest ? (Children seldom for- 
mulate a correct theory.) In a tumbler place different sizes of glass 
tubes, ranging from very fine (capillary) tubes to a large tube. Fill 
the tumbler with colored water. (To make capillary tubes, heat 
glass tubing in a flame. When it softens draw from the flame and 
quickly pull the glass to the desired diameter. Hold the tube at each 



THE SOIL 19 

end and keep it turning while in the heat.) In which tube does 
the water climb the highest? Now who can tell in which cylinder 
the water will climb the highest? Why in the clay? 

(In short tubes the water will climb most rapidly in the sand. 
This gives the teacher a chance to point out the value of many 
experiments to prove a theory. If tubes twelve to twenty-four 
inches in length are used, the capillary water reaches the top in the 
clay most quickly.) Observe that the water climbs very slowly 
in the cloddy soil. It is the water which climbs back that the plants 
need. Who knows another reason for making the seed bed fine? 

The Mulch. — If I break this small tube about halfway down, 
what might happen, Fred? How can we stop the overflow? 
" Plug with cotton." If the soil is filled with these minute capil- 
lary tubes, what is the water doing ? On clear days how can we 
prevent the overflow ? Why can't we see the water as it comes out ? 
But how can we plug the tubes? " With dirt." Yes, by making 
a fine mulch with harrows or hoes. Let us remember how to con- 
serve this moisture after we start the gardens. (Develop value of 
dry farming. See Widtsoe's " Dry Farming," The Macmillan Co.) 

Humus and Clay Hold Water Best. Sand Loses Water Rapidly. — 
(After the capillary action in the three tubes of earth is complete, 
weigh each, and from day to day weigh again to determine which 
kind retains water best, or arrange as in Fig. 5. The amount of 
water in the bottles shows relative loss of gravitational water or 
retaining power of sand, humus, and clay. Put the same amount 
of sand, clay, and humus in separate })oxes. Weigh each. Add 
the same amount of water by weight to each. Weigh each day.) 
What kind of earth loses capillary water most rapidly? (Draw 
attention to the rains in the desert. Point out how the cactus is 
adapted to getting water quickly and how the modified stems store 
water.) 

Sand with a Clayey Bed Conserves Water. — Since sand does not 
hold water readily and clay does, which ranch would you rather 
purchase, one with a sandy bed several feet below the surface or 
one with a clay bed? Why the one with a clay bed, James? 
" Moisture would be held from seeping away, while it would escape 



20 ELEMENTARY SCHOOL AGRICULTURE 

through the sand." How might the land be tested? By using a 
post auger one might bore and determine the kind of base. If water 
is convenient for irrigating, a sandy base is not bad. For the 
growing of trees a deep, uniform soil is best. 

(Place a portion of a plant through a cardboard fitted to the top 
of a tumbler so that the stem reaches water. Invert another tumbler 
over the plant and set aside for the next lesson. This is to illustrate 
loss of moisture through transpiration and will suggest the treat- 
ment of weed growth in the gardens.) 

LESSON II 
THE SOIL AND THE SEED 

Review the lesson on the soil, emphasizing those things that will 
direct conduct in the gardens, — how to test the soil in the garden, 
how to improve the same, how to conserve moisture, the harmful- 
ness and value of a sandy and a clayey subsoil, how to test for the 
same, etc. 

Examine the bottle of soil and water left over from the previous 
lesson. The relative weight and percentages of humus, clay, and 
sand are indexed. Point out that valley farms are best because the 
water carries the light particles to the lowland. The larger particles 
are deposited in and near the foothills. Classify soils according to 
the percentage of coarse and fine sand in each. 

80-100 % sand means sandy soil 
60- 80 % sand means sandy loam 
40- 60 % sand means loam 
20- 40 % sand means clayey loam 
0- 20 % sand means clay 

If the time permits, point out the action of fire, water, air, plants, 
and animals in making soil. 

Examine the dry balls of sand, clay, humus, and the mixtures 
prepared at the previous lesson. Clay soil bakes and puddles. 
Addition of sand or humus prevents this. Sand is too loose in 



THE SOIL AND THE SEED 21 

texture. Humus and clay give improvement. Make up an ideal 
soil. 

New Work 

General Topic Aim. — To interest the pupils in plant life through 
a study of the seed ; to point out the relationship existing between 
seeds and the life of the pupils ; to let the seed offer its small bit 
to build up a large perspective of the pupils' environment and to aid 
in forming the individual's philosophy. 

Specific Lesson Aim. — To teach such fundamental principles re- 
garding seeds as will direct the pupils' conduct in the school garden ; 
namely, (1) what is a seed? (2) how deep shall a seed be planted? 
(3) how far apart to plant seeds, etc. 

Method of Approach. — Put several Windsor (or Lima) beans to 
soak several days before the lesson. 

The Lesson 

How deep would you plant wheat? What a variety of answers 
you have ; they vary in suggestions as to depth from one half inch 

to two feet. At S I gave the pupils some Acacia seeds, which 

are about the size of wheat, and asked for depth to plant. Their 
answers varied from one inch to two feet, just as do yours. Whose 
suggestions shall we follow ? Do you not think we had better learn 
something about seeds before we attempt to plant them? To-day 
we shall learn how deep and how far apart to plant seeds. 

Water Enters first through Micropyle near the Hilum. — (Give 
each pupil a bean which has started to sprout.) What does a seed 
need before it wakens? How does the water get into the seed? 
Look closely. Yes, there may be holes. Into this glass of warm 
boiled water I am going to drop two beans. (See Fig. 2, page 4 in 
text.) Notice what happens. Where are the bubbles coming from ? 
The little opening which you see is called the micropyle and through 
it the first water enters. If you look closely at your bean you may 
find the micropyle. I am going to drop these beans into water. 
The micropyles are closed with vaseline. What happens? (The 
teacher should never hesitate to use the proper name when its need 



22 ELEMENTARY SCHOOL AGRICULTURE 

is felt.) Here I have several peas in a pod. Notice how each pea 
is fastened to the pod. Examine the bean you have and tell me 
where you think it was attached to the pod. That place on the pea 
is called the hilum. If the water enters first near the hiliun we must 
be careful to plant the seeds in what manner? Yes, with the hilum 
down or far enough beneath the soil to insure water entering the 
micropyle. How can we prove this? Bring in some plan that we 
may try later or experiment at home. 

Water also Enters Seed through Coat by Osmosis after Sugar 
Has Begun to Form. — • Carefully remove the covering of the seed in 
two halves. Do you suppose that water could pass directly through 
the cover? Is there any way to find out? Here, I have these two 
halves. In one I shall place a little sugar and shall float each in 
this tumbler of water. I am going to treat these walnut shells in 
the same way. Notice from day to day what happens. (See Fig. 
9, page 15 in text.) 

Seed Gets rid of Coat at Once. — What is the first thing the seed 
tries to do when it begins to pump water? If that is so, is the seed 
coat of value ? How shall we find out ? Yes, we now have another 
experiment to try. (Seeds put into water at the beginning of the 
lesson wrmkle. See Fig. 1, page 3 in text.) 

If this seed were planted, what would come from it ? Carefully 
pull the two parts open, leaving a hinge. How many can find the 
little bean, the little embryo, as it is called ? What is the first thing 
needed by a young animal? What is the first thing needed by the 
embryo plant? Where is its food? What do you think would 
happen if we planted the embryo by itself ? The food is stored in 
these seed leaves, or coUjledons. Yes, we will try it. This stored 
food is to feed the embryo until it can fix the roots and get its leaves 
to the sunlight, so which seed should we plant the deeper, the wheat 
seed or the bean? Would you like to know a general plan to 
follow? Seeds are usually planted at a depth ranging from three 
to five times their diameter. 

Mono-, Di-, Polycotyledonous Plants. — (Having named the seed 
leaves as cotyledons develop the classification of plants into mono-, 
di-, and polycotyledonous divisions. Also draw attention to the 



THE SOIL AND THE SEED 23 

radicle and plumule. However, the essential fact to leave in the 
minds of the children is that the embryo, and usually its stored food, 
constitute the seed.) 

How Far Apart to Plant Seeds. — How far apart shall we plant 
these radish seeds ? These lettuce seeds ? Your answers differ. We 
must know how far apart to plant seeds before going ahead. Notice 
the roots of the radish and the lettuce. (Knock the end out of a chalk 
box. Get old camera plates 3i x 4J inches, clean, slip two into the 
grooves of the box. Place a piece of black cloth next to the glass 
and fill the box with fine soil. Several days before the lesson, plant 
lettuce and radish next to the glass. Between two plates of glass 
place two or three thicknesses of blotters. Next to the glass on the 
blotter sides place two pieces of black cloth. At one edge of the 
apparatus place corn seeds side by side between the cloth and the 
glass. Treat wheat seeds in a like manner on the reverse side. 
Stretch a rubber band around the apparatus to hold seeds and glass 
in place. Suspend in a jar of water. Observe results from day to 
day.) Now, who can tell me why radish seeds are planted closely 
together and lettuce seeds farther apart, since you know what the 
roots are for? According to our new knowledge how far apart shall 
we plant turnip seeds? Pansy seeds? Wheat? Corn? 

Root and Top Space Usually Determine Distance Apart to Plant 
Seeds. — Just as different plants need different root space, so do 
they need variable top space. The cabbage needs plenty of top 
space to mature a fine large head. This factor must be remem- 
bered to help us in planting and transplanting. 

Notes 

These lessons may be given but once a week for one period, since 
their aim is to direct conduct in the school gardens which are soon 
to be started. A great deal of valuable material may be woven into 
each lesson if a teacher so desires, such as : methods used by Nature 
to bury her seeds, the reasons for doing this ; seed dispersal, seed 
adaptations. The teacher should ever see beyond the seed, beyond 
the material at hand, to the larger lessons. Each study should 



24 ELEMENTARY SCHOOL AGRICULTURE 

add its bit to emphasize the great study of evolution and its kindred 
subjects. Our suggestion, however, if time is limited, is to give only 
those things that direct immediate conduct now. Later the other 
factors may be taken up. 

At the close of this lesson the children are ready to work under- 
standingly in the preparation of the gardens. They know how 
to prepare a seed bed and why each step is to be taken. They know 
how to plant seeds. Logically, this is the time to start the school 
gardens. The following lessons should be given as time permits. 

LESSON III 
PROBLEM QUESTIONS 

During the first two lessons on soils and plants certain problem 
questions have arisen. While some of the pupils may have ex- 
perimented to solve the problems, a period should be taken to set 
up experiments designed to answer the questions. (See Introduc- 
tion.) 

Read or state the following problem questions to the children and 
let them select such as appeal to them. 

1. Does the water enter first through the hilum? 

2. Is the seed coat of value to the seed? 

3. How deep shall seeds be planted? 

4. Does the seed use much force in breaking open its coat? 

5. What device is used by some seeds to bury themselves? 

6. Shall one irrigate or sprinkle one's garden? 

7. What effect has cultivation on loss of moisture? A mulch? 

8. Why should one make the seed bed fine in texture? 

9. Will seeds grow well in sand? In clay? In humus? Or 
better in a mixture of the three? 

10. What is the effect of too much water on seeds? 

Usually a class of forty children choose experiments in such a way 
that they work in groups of four and five. 

With the experiments assigned, give definite suggestions to each 
group relative to their experiment or, better, let the children devise 
the experiment. 



PROBLEMS 25 

Experiment 1. — In chalk boxes filled with earth, bury six Wind- 
sor or lima beans half under the soil with the hilum exposed to the 
air. Plant six with the hilum down and lay six flat on the soil. 
Keep the surface moist and observe from day to day. Make records 
in notebooks. (See Fig. 3, page 5 in text.) 

Experiment 2. — Put twelve beans in water over night. (Teacher 
should do this before the lesson.) Carefully remove the seed coats 
from six beans. Plant the twelve beans and give them all the same 
treatment. 

Experiment 3. — Knock out one end of a chalk box. Slide two 
spoiled, clean camera plates 3i x 4^ inches into the grooves of the 
box. Place a black cloth against the glass and fill the box with 
moist earth or sawdust. Press seeds between the cloth and the glass 
at different depths. Determine best depth to plant seeds. 

Experiment 4. — Fill a bottle with dry beans. Place the bottle 
in water. Observe results. (See Fig. 5, page 8 in text.) 

Experiment 5. — Into a bunch of cotton place alfilaria seeds, 
foxtails, and oats. Observe results. Discuss other methods that 
Nature uses to bury seeds. (See Fig. 90, page 174 in text.) 

Experiment 6. — Plant rows of seeds in two boxes. Give the same 
treatment to all. Measure out the same amount of water for each 
box. Sprinkle one box and irrigate the other. Watch results 
from day to day. 

Experiment 7. — Fill two boxes of the same size with soil until 
they weigh the same. Add the same amount of water by 
weight to each. The following day carefully cultivate the surface 
of the soil in one box. Weigh both boxes each day. What happens ? 

Experiment 8. — Grow seeds in boxes containing cloddy soil and 
fine soil. Give the seeds the same treatment. Observe results. 

Experiment 9. — Grow seeds in clay, sand, hum.us, and in mix- 
tures of the three. Treat all boxes alike. Observe and draw con- 
clusions. 

Experiment 10. — Fill two tumblers with soil. Plant seeds in 
each. Keep one tumbler of soil moist. On the surface of the other 
soil keep water standing. 



26 ELEMENTARY SCHOOL AGRICULTURE 

Notes 

Soil to be used one day should be watered the preceding day and 
allowed to stand without disturbance over night. Do not water 
and stir soil at the same time. 

Each experiment should be set up neatly and carefully. Small 
labels should be placed at the head of each seed row, indexing the 
kinds of seeds planted and the date. These labels may be pur- 
chased at a low price from seed houses or made from shingles. 

In all cases be sure that the children know what the experiments 
are to teach so that they will direct conduct in the garden work. 
The children must also know the law of majorities, that one experi- 
ment does not always suffice, but that several demonstrations are 
necessary for proof. All sources for error must be pointed out and 
avoided so far as possible. When necessary, control or check ex- 
periments, for comparison should be used in children's experiments 
and teacher's demonstrations. 



LESSON IV 
THE NEEDS OF THE SEED AND THE PLANT 

Have the children examine the progress of the experiments started 
at the previous lesson. Be sure that the aim of each experiment is 
understood. Apply the results to the garden work. Experiments 
1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 are particularly of value in the direction of 
conduct. Make notes recording the progress of the problems. 

Experiment (1) teaches that the hilum at least must be beneath 
the soil. Many seeds, such as the canna, cannot secure much 
water through their horny seed coats. This is the first necessity 
of the seed. In this case the coat is harmful and must be filed in 
order to let water in. Pine seeds germinate sooner if a hole is 
drilled in the seed coat at the germ end. Experiment (2) suggests 
conduct in the above direction. Experiment (3) enables one to for- 
mulate a rule that seeds are planted usually at a depth 3 to 5 times 
their diameter. Experiments 6 and 7 teach the fundamental prin- 



THE NEEDS OF THE SEED AND THE PLANT 27 

ciple of water application and dry farming. Experiments 8, 9, 10 
direct conduct in the selection and preparation of the seed bed, in 
application of water, and in planting seeds. 

The Needs of Seeds and Plants 

General Topic Aim. — Same as in Lesson II. 

Specific Lesson Aim. — To teach that the embryo plant needs air, 
water, and warmth for growth — that the plant, free from the seed, 
needs sunshine in addition — in order that proper methods may be 
used in the garden to supply each. 

The Lesson 

(The most interesting thing to a child is himself. The teacher 
should make the most of this in all school work.) Children, who 
can tell me what we need in order to live ? You are right, we must all 
have food, water, sunshine, and warmth. Some day and possibly 
very soon I should like to know if you are getting each of these 
in the proper way. (See Lesson X.) 

Little Difiference between Low Form of Plant and Animal Life. — 
What is a seed, Fred ? Correct. What is a plant ? Your answers 
differ. What is an animal ? Again you are puzzled. You do not 
define either one so as to shut out the other. And there is little 
wonder, for many of our brightest men and women cannot do this. 
There is a little living thing (picture on board) Uglena which seems 
to be both like an animal and a plant. This organism is found in the 
water. (See any text on Zoology or Biology.) 

If an animal and a plant are so much alike what does the plant 
need ? Are you sure that the embryo plant needs sunshine ? What 
have we discovered that the seed tries to do as soon as it reaches 
the soil? Does the little plant within need sunshine? How can 
we find out? How shall we arrange the experiment? That is a 
good suggestion. 

Plants Need Air. — Here are two bottles, a cork, and seeds. How 
can we prove that seeds and plants need air ? We shall follow May's 
suggestion. (Arrange experiment and set aside, use cotton as the 



28 



ELEMENTARY SCHOOL AGRICULTURE 




im 



seed medium. Use six- or eight-ounce bottles with wide mouths. 

Also suggest and set up this experiment — plant seeds in a tumblerful 
D of soil, add water until all soil air is driven out, 

and set aside.) 

Plants Need Warmth. — How can we find 
out if plants need warmth ? How many know 
without experimenting? Yes, Geography tells 
us. However, let us devise some method with 
these seeds, the stove, and the coldest spot we 
can find. What shall we do? (Plant seeds 
in three bottles as in Fig. 6. Place one 
near the stove, one on the window sill inside, 
and one outside. Each should be given the 
same treatment as to water.) 

Do plants need food ? How may we prove 



Fig. 6. 
Plants Need Food. 
John's answer ? (The pupils are slow in devising this experiment. 
Arrange five chalk boxes, put cotton, sawdust, sand, clay, and mixture 
of sand, humus, and clay in separate boxes. Plant the same kind 
of seed in each box and give all the same treatment. Fill another 
series of boxes with sawdust. Using the same amount of water add 
distilled water to one, tap water to another, distilled water contain- 
ing a nitrate, distilled water containing a phosphate, and distilled 
water containing a potash salt to others. Or better, fill several 
beakers or tumblers partly full of distilled water, suspend a few of 
the same kind of seeds in the water by using mosquito netting. Cut 
the netting considerably larger than the circumference of a beaker, 
place over a beaker and fasten in place with a rubber band. With 
the finger force the sag in the netting to the surface of the water, 
and add the seeds. To prevent evaporation and to shut out 
bacteria cover the opening of the beaker with cotton. Add plant 
foods as desired to the different beakers, first making up 1 per cent 
solutions, etc. See Osterhout's '' Experiments with Plants," 
pp. 137-140, listed in Appendix C. (For distilling water arrange a 
cake pan and two ordinary pans as shown in cut. Put water in 
the upper and lower pans and heat. Osterhout's ''Experiment 
with Plants," page 137 for cut.) 



THE NEEDS OF THE SEED AND THE PLANT 29 

In one box of sawdust or soil place three rows of Windsor beans. 
Later, as the seed leaves appear, break them off the plants in the 
first row. A week later treat the second row similarly. Observe 
from day to day. What is the function of the seed leaves ? 

The Embyro Plant Does Not Need Sunshine for Growth. The 
Plant Free at the Surface Does. — Think of the seed with its tough 
cover laying in the soil and tell me if the embryo plant needs sun- 
shine. Devise some experiments with these plates, blotters, and 
seeds. (Place seed on the blotters in one plate and cover with an- 
other so as to shut out sunlight.) How shall we prove that plants 
need sunshine? (Start similar seeds in two boxes or bottles as in 
cut shown on the preceding page, place one in the dark and one in 
the light.) 

Notes 

The children know that the plants need moisture. However, 
peas may be started in sawdust and after the plants come up they 
may be allowed to wilt. Add water to refresh them. Water not only 
conveys food to the plant but makes it plump and strong (turgid) . 

The apparatus for this lesson should be ready beforehand. If 
apparatus and room permit, it is best to let the children set up the 
experiments and take care of them. Keep them well arranged in 
the room, labeled as follows : " Do plants need air? " " Do plants 
need sunshine? " etc. 

The next lesson will deal with the application of the results ob- 
tained from these experiments. Each experiment aims to direct 
conduct in the gardens. 

Again let us suggest that the classroom experimental work should 
be sacrificed to the school garden if time does not allow for atten- 
tion to both. 

LESSON V 

THE NEEDS OF THE SEED AND THE PLANT 
(Continued) 

(The experiments started at the previous lesson should be ex- 
amined one by one and the results applied to the garden work. 



30 ELEMENTARY SCHOOL AGRICULTURE 

Hold up the two bottles containing cotton and seeds. Do the 
embryo plants need air? Yes, there is no growth in the bottle which 
is corked. Notice this tumbler in which I planted seeds.) Again 
we find no growth. If the embryo plants need air how can we satisfy 
this need in the gardens? 

(Develop the following facts by questions. The soil texture may 
be modified. Organic matter added to soil improves it. It opens 
the clay so that air circulates more freely. It binds the sand more 
closely. Organic matter prevents soil from puddling, thus keeping 
it free for the entrance of air. 

The pore-space may be enlarged for the admittance of air. Soil 
is composed of varying particles of clay, sand, and humus. Air 
spaces exist at the meeting places of these particles. It follows that 
the size and number of the air spaces vary with the size of the parti- 
cles. The number of pores in the sand is less than in the clay but 
the pores are larger. Thus the air space is increased in the more 
porous soil. Besides, the available water supply is much increased, 
and soil food more readily reaches the fine root hairs. Spading 
and cultivating makes porous soil. Seeds should not be planted 
when the soil is saturated because of lack of air.) 

Do you remember this experiment? (Have the three bottles on 
the desk which were located in a cold, a normal, and a hot environ- 
ment.) What does this experiment teach us? How can we plan 
so that the seeds we plant shall have w^armth? 

(Develop, by questioning, the following facts. The warmth of 
soils may be modified by altering the texture. Sand is warm, clay 
is cold. The method of modification is obvious. Seeds should 
not be planted during the cold wet season nor during the hot weather. 
Manure should not be added to a seed bed during the warm d&ys. 

The experiments to prove that plants need food will not be far 
enough along to direct conduct. The seed leaves of the first row 
of beans may be picked off. Follow this experiment and at the 
proper time point out how much the young plant depends on its 
seed food. 

Pass out the plates containing seeds germinating in the dark and 
in the light.) Do embryo plants need light, class? Examine these 



ROOTS 31 

plants grown in the dark and in the Hght. Do maturing plants 
need sunlight? Why does this plant bend toward the window? 
Some plants do not need as much sunlight as others. The fern 
does best in a cool, damp, shaded spot, while sunshine is essential 
to most flowering plants. How does this experiment teach us what 
to do in the gardens? 

(To insure equal distribution of sunlight show the children that 
the rows should be sown at right angles to the path of the sun across 
the sky — north and south. Teach that tall plants should not be 
grown so as to shade others, that seeds should not be started in 
shady spots, that young plants should be thinned out to prevent 
shading us well as for other reasons.) 



LESSON VI 
ROOTS 

Unit of Instruction. — The work of the roots. 

General Topic Aim. — To show the relationship between the roots 
and the life of the plant, to interest the children further in plant life. 

Specific Lesson Aim. — To teach the function of roots (1) to hold 
the plant in place, (2) to furnish soil food. 

The Lesson 

Roots Hold Plants in the Soil. — (Ere this, in the development 
of the experiments started, the children will have come in con- 
tact with many roots. Pick up a beaker or tum]3ler in which 
seeds have developed roots and snip off the roots below the netting 
in which the seeds are suspended in the water.) Children, what is 
one use of roots to a plant? Corn roots often form a few inches 
above the soil to brace the stem. 

The Root Furnishes Soil Food. — What will happen to this plant 
in a few days? Why will it die? (Have at hand the apparatus 
set up in Lesson IV to show that plants need food. The plants will 
be well under way by this time. Plants in the beaker containing 



32 ELEMENTARY SCHOOL AGRICULTURE 

distilled water will probably be suffering for lack of food.) I am 
going to drop this salt into this beaker of water. What has become 
of the salt? A handful of radish seed if thrown into a barrel of 
apples would be lost to view. Where would the seeds go? Yes, 
among the apples. The particles of salt have gone between the 
water particles. The salt is said to be in solution. Now let us see 
if we can find some of the salt in this spoonful of water by evaporat- 
ing the water. What do we see in the spoon? Taste it. Let us 
test this distilled water and the tap water in a similar way for sub- 
stances in solution. Which contains the substances? Now, why 
do you think the plants in the distilled water are dying? Yes, the 
substances in solution are their food and there is no food in dis- 
tilled water. (Be sure the children understand what distilled water is. 
Let them distill some if they have not done so. See cut, page 137, 
Osterhout's " Experiments with Plants.") Plants can use food 
only that is in solution. They need lime. What other substances 
have we found plants to need? (Examine experiments set up in 
Lesson IV.) Marble is cooked lime and may furnish food to a plant. 
Bones may furnish lime. If I drop this piece of marble or this piece 
of chalk into a beaker containing a plant, can the plant use the lime ? 
Why not? Yes, it must be in solution. 

Acids Turn Blue Litmus Paper Red. — I have a little acid in this 
test tube. Watch what happens when I put a little on the litmus 
paper. Substances that turn blue litmus paper red are acids. 
Observe what happens to this piece of marble (or chalk) when I 
drop it into the acid. (In a short time the marble disappears. 
The explanation of the singing noise due to bubbles of gas bursting, 
the testing of the gas, the cause of the resulting heat, may be taken 
up if you see fit. Any one of these suggests an intensely interesting 
field to children. One of the excellent features of agricultural study 
is the continuity of subjects offered. One study leads naturally to 
another. Forces at work are studied and the wholeness of the in- 
dividual and his environment is ever evident. If you are skillful, 
you will watch the interest of your class and let it lead the children 
into new fields. However, you will avoid the danger illustrated by 
a hunter and his dog. He may let the dog run hither and thither 



ROOTS 33 

through water, over hills, and in every unlikely place, due to abound- 
ing dog life, with himself following blindly, and he will return with 
an empty bag ; but let him check his dog as he starts on a mere wild 
chase, to let him go when results are liable to be obtained, and the 
hunter will return with birds in the bag. If the class takes a pro- 
ductive scent, follow, but direct the chase.) 

Water Usually Shows the Presence of an Acid. — Let us test 
this well water for the presence of an acid. You see the litmus paper 
is turned slightly red. Suggest one way that mineral matter may be 
put in solution. 

The Roots of Plants Secrete an Acid to Put Mineral Food in 
Solution. — Notice that I have put litmus paper in this glass funnel 
filled with sand. I shall plant these wheat seeds next to the litmus 
paper and water the sand with distilled water. (Tap water usually 
has an acid reaction.) What do you suppose will happen? We 
shall see if your theory is right. (As the roots develop they will be 
outlined in red on the litmus paper, which is placed around the 
funnel next the glass, showing the presence of an acid. This acid of 
course helps to put mineral food in solution.) Children, this experi- 
ment will tell us more about the usefulness of the root. 

Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potash, Lime, and the Other Foods may 
be Added to Soils. — What foods have we found plants to need? 
Nitrogen may be added to your gardens by working in dry cow's 
manure ; phosphorus is best added by buying and applying a pre- 
pared fertilizer, although ground-up bone contains slowly available 
phosphorus ; potash may be added by working in wood ashes ; lime 
is necessary to add to some soils. However, our garden soil is rich, 
so we shall not add fertilizers this 3^ear. 

Products such as wheat, oats, and tobacco use a great deal of 
nitrogen from the soil, and nitrogen is absolutely essential to plant 
growth. Wliat will happen if wheat is grown year after j^ear on the 
same land? Clover does not depend so much on the nitrogen of 
the soil, but obtains it from the air with the help of bacteria (minute 
plants that live in the bead-like swellings on its roots). These 
bunches on the roots of this clover are due to millions of bacteria. 
If it is true that bacteria help the clover plant in getting nitrogen 



34 



ELEMENTARY SCHOOL AGRICULTURE 



from the air, how shall we grow these two types of plants, clover 
and wheat? Yes, we will interchange them. This is called rota- 
tion of crops. Radishes and lettuce need different food from corn, 
so in our gardens we must rotate the crops. (See Fig. 7, which 











WHEAT 










CLOVER 












,A 




r 


K 


\ 


/ 
















— 1 1 — 












■■-]■" 1 




^ 1 — 1 
































^ 




































o 










i 
























o 




































5 




































u 
















-mmmrn^'- 


^■''^^■■■0}-;:-:y^^^^^^ -■ ■• ■' 


S > S H 


••••^•.•■i:-r^- «•.--• •• -H 


ASH 

5PH0R 
CID 


ASH 

SPHOF 
ACID 
















o 








— 















Fig. 7. 



shows the relative amounts of plant food used by wheat and 
clover.) 

Gravity, Presence of Moisture and of Food Cause the Roots to 
Grow Downward. — Why do you suppose roots grow in certain 
definite directions, usually downward? Why does this book fall 
if I withdraw my hand? Gravity is the most regular pull on the 
roots. These two experiments I prepared some time ago. This 
box with a wire netting bottom contains sawdust and seeds. The 
box has been resting with one end raised several inches. (See cut, 
page 95, Osterhout's " Experiments with Plants.") Look at 
the roots which were pulled through the netting by gravity. What 
are they doing? Why have some partially turned back? Because 
of the moisture. This experiment illustrates the same thing. 
This is a chalk box filled with sand. Imbedded in the sand is a 
porous pot filled with water. The seeds were planted between the 
glass front to the box and this black cloth (the cloth is used to keep 



ROOTS 



35 



the seeds m view). Why are the roots bending toward the pot? 
(See cut, page 96, Osterhout's '' Experiments with Plants ") 

Surface Irrigation Causes Growth of Surface Roots and Later the 
Plants Suffer. - If roots seek moisture what is the danger of surface 
irrigation? What is the value of deep furrow irrigation? 

The Root Hairs Pump Water and Food into the Main Root. — Here 
are many radish seeds growing on this sand. Pick one out as the 
dish is passed. What do you find chnging to the roots? What 
holds the particles of sand? These tiny rootlets are called root 
hairs. They are very fine and slip between the soil crumbs, taking 
up soil food which is in solution. (See Fig. 8, p. 13 in text.) 
(Review needs of plants as to air, etc., and the 'proper way to 
insure same to the plant.) Without these small root hairs the 
main root would have to be at least seventy-five times as large 
as it is. 

The Food Gets into the Root through Osmosis. — Here are three 
carrot roots which I hollowed out yesterday. Two have stood in 
water and one as you see has not been near moisture. In one I 
placed sugar. Tell me what you observe. Yes, there is water in 
this one and the sugar is in solution. Where did the water come 
from? How do you know that it came from outside the root? 
Yes, our control experiments tell the story. There is no water in 
either. What caused the water to enter but one root? Where 
else have we found sugar doing this work? What is this process 
called? Thus the roots furnish soil food to the plants, but they 
furnish only about 3 per cent of the food needed by plants, if we 
do not count water itself as food. How and where do the plants 
get the other 97 per cent ? (The teacher should remember that these 
figures pertain to the weight of plants when thoroughly dried.) 
Would you not like to know how the leaves work? Very well, we 
shall study them at the next lesson. 



36 ELEMENTARY SCHOOL AGRICULTURE 

LESSON VII 
THE STEM AND THE LEAVES 

Unit of Instruction. — The work of the stem and the leaves. 

General Topic Aim. — Same as in Lesson VI, except the relation- 
ship is between the stem, leaves, and the life of the plant. 

Specific Lesson Aim. — To teach the function of stems and 
leaves. 

The Lesson 

The Stem Conveys Food, and Lifts Leaves, Fruit, and Seeds into 
the Air. — At the last lesson we learned that three per cent of the 
plant's food is furnished by the roots. How does some of this food 
get to the leaves? I shall cut open this stem of a calla lily which 
yesterday was placed in this basin of colored water. What is the 
main work of the stem? (Teacher blows on a dandelion ready to 
disperse its seeds.) What are these things flying around? To each 
little parachute there is a seed. What is the parachute for? Of 
what gain is it to the plant to scatter its seeds? Can you think of 
another use for the stem? Yes, the plant with the long stem is 
best prepared to scatter its seeds, other things being equal. What 
else does the stem lift into the air? 

Leaves Throw ofif Moisture from the Plant ; They are Food- 
makers. — What was the test for acids ? One can also test starch, 
but in a different way. Notice what happens to this starch as I add 
iodine. Iodine always turns starch blue. Do you suppose there 
IS any starch in this corn seed? Let us test. Yes, you see there 
is. How do you suppose it got there ? John thinks it came in with 
water. Let me add this starch to water. Does it dissolve? Then, 
can it reach the seed as starch? No, for starch is insoluble. How- 
ever, starch is changed to sugar, which dissolves and is carried by the 
water where it is needed and then changed back to starch. Potato 
is made of starch and water mainly. The saliva in the mouth may 
change the starch to sugar and in that form we use it. There is 
something in the plant which does this same thing. 

Starch is made of Carbon Dioxide and Water. — Set up the ap- 



THE STEM AND THE LEAVES 37 

paratus as shown in cut. (Page 186, Fig. 105, Osterhout's " Experi- 
ments with Plants.") Place a little starch in the tube and heat 
gently. Water collects on the sides of the tube and the lime water 
in the tumbler turns milky, showing the presence of carbon dioxide. 
You may have to make carbon dioxide to show the lime water test. 
(Use marble and dilute hydrochloric acid.) Where does the water 
come from. Children? What gas is given off? Of what is starch 
made? 

The Plant Takes in Carbon Dioxide and Water. — (Set up the 
apparatus as illustrated. Page 75, Fig. 139 of text.) Use laurel 
or magnolia branches. Fill the tube full of water, make air-tight, 
and place in the sun.) What causes the bubbles? Where does the 
air come from ? Air contains carbon dioxide. Lime water exposed 
to the air turns milky, as you remember. If starch is composed of 
water and carbon dioxide, if the plant takes in carbon dioxide and 
water, and if we find starch in the seed, what conclusion may we 
draw? Yes, the plant must put water and carbon dioxide together 
to make the starch and the sugar. What is the most likely place 
for this process to take place? The leaf unites water and carbon 
dioxide to form elaborated foods, e.g. sugars, starch, proteids, etc. 
I have drawn on the board a cross section of a leaf. The green 
color represents chlorophyll grains. These green grains give the 
color to the leaf. (See cut, page 202, Fig. 116, Osterhout's '' Ex- 
periments with Plants.") These little grains are like a steam engine 
to the plant. The sunlight is the fire, and sets the chlorophyll 
particles to work, the water and carbon dioxide are combined and 
may be thought of as the water, and the starch, the final result, 
is the steam. 

Leaf Surface. — Plants have many methods of presenting and 
of limiting a large leaf surface. (Take the children on a field trip to 
point out leaf arrangements for offering a large leaf surface to the 
sunlight. See pages 78 and 79 of the text. On the same trip direct 
their attention to the methods of leaves to prevent loss of moisture 
(1) by rolling, (2) by hairy covering, (3) by thick epidermis, (4) by 
wax, gums, etc., (5) by changes in position, etc. Field trips should 
be made whenever possible.) 



38 ELEMENTARY SCHOOL AGRICULTURE 

LESSON VIII 
THE FLOWER 

Unit of Instruction. — The work of the flower. 

General Topic Aim. — The same as in Lesson VII with relation- 
ship of the flower to the plant. 

Specific Lesson Aim. — To teach the parts of a flower ; to point 
out the process of fertilization. 

The Lesson 

The Final Aim of a Plant is to Reproduce Itself. — What happens 
to most plants after they flower and go to seed? What happens 
to an alfalfa plant if it is cut before it goes to seed? What seems 
to be the main work of a plant ? Would you not like to know how 
plants reproduce themselves, how new plants are formed? 

The calyx, sepals, corolla petals, stamens, filament, anther, pollen, 
pistil, stigma, style, ovary, and ovules are the main parts of a flower. 
(Give to each child a specimen of a flower, carnation, flax, geranium, 
or any flower from a stone or a pome fruit tree, which is typical 
and has all the parts listed above.) Children, I dislike to tear 
flowers to pieces because of their beauty and fragrance and because 
of the pleasure they bring to people, but to-day we shall have to 
sacrifice these flowers in order to learn how new plants are made. On 
the board I have a drawing of this flower, naming the different parts. 
(Fig. 48, page 92 of the text.) 

The Corolla is the Most Attractive Part of a Plant. — What is the 
most attractive part of your flower ? What does the corolla attract ? 
Your suggestions are good, but let us wait a few minutes before 
we definitely settle the question. Carefully remove the small parts 
which make the corolla. Count them. These are called petals. 
Sometimes it is necessary to know the number of petals before we 
can name a flower. 

The Calyx and Sepals. — Look at the calyx, the green cup in 
which the corolla seemed to stand. The leaf-like parts are the 
sepals. The calyx supports the rest of the flower. 



THE FLOWER 30 

The Stamens and Pistil and Their Parts. — I shall not worry 
if you forget the other names I have given you, but I want you to 
remember that there are stamens, the male element, of the plant, 
and this is the pistil, the female element. These parts are essential 
to any plant, the others are not. Examine them closely. Care- 
fully pull off a stamen. . Notice the swollen part at the top. It is 
the anther. What is the yellow, powder-like substance? The long 
slender portion is the filament. These new names are on the board. 
Carefully pull off all the stamens. How many are there? The 
number of stamens often help in naming an unknown flower. What 
is left ? Yes, this is the pistil. The enlarged top is the stigma, 
the swollen base is the ovary, and the slender stalk is the style. 
Cut the ovary in half with a sharp knife. What do you see ? The 
tiny bodies are ovules or egg cells which will grow into seeds if they 
can. All of these parts are drawn and labeled on the board. In 
a few minutes we shall take time to copy them in our books. Some 
of you will remember these new names, some will forget them, but 
I hope none will forget the stamens and pistil and their use, which 
we are going to learn. 

Pollination. — When the pistil of a plant gets ripe it forms a shiny 
covering of sticky liquid on the stigma. If a pollen grain falls into 
this liquid, it germinates and sends a long tube down the style, into 
the ovary, and finally into an ovule. The two elements are united 
and in time a seed develops which may be planted to produce a new 
plant. (Fig. 50, page 94 of text.) If you were to taste the sticky 
stuff, you would probably find it sweet like sirup. You may come 
forward one at a time to see the pollen grains beneath the microscope 
which I have germinated in sirup. Notice the long, root-like tube 
which normally .penetrates the style. (Make a solution of fifteen 
grams of sugar in 100 centimeters of water. Put a few drops of the 
solution on microscopic slides and add a few grains of pollen from 
oak anthers, sweet peas, or nasturtiums. Place thin cover slips on 
each end of the slides to slightly raise the slides placed over the 
pollen and solution. Examine every three or four hours. To 
prevent the sugar solution from drying up, put the slides beneath 
a bell jar with a moist sponge to keep the air damp. Microscopic 



40 ELEMENTARY SCHOOL AGRICULTURE 

slides and covers are not essential. Ordinary saucers will do to bold 
the weak sugar solution and an inverted teacup may take the 
place of the bell jar. A strong magnifying glass may do as a sub- 
stitute for the microscope.) When you return to your seat make 
a drawing of what you saw. 

Fertilization. — The union of the two elements, the pollen grain 
with the ovule, which I have told you about, is called fertilization. 
(See page 92 in text.) Children, it seems to me this is the most 
wonderful thing you can learn about plants. Nature's great problem 
has always been, how to save life. The pollen grains are alive when 
you take them from the stamen, but in a few hours or days usually 
they will die. The ovules in the ovary are alive, but if no pollen 
falls on the stigma, they cannot grow into seeds. Now you know 
the great secret of how Nature saves life and at the same time how 
the different kinds of plants are able to propagate themselves. 

Cross-pollination. — Notice that the anthers in these flowers 
are elevated over the stigma but that there is no sticky substance 
on the stigma. Examine these flowers. Notice the position of the 
essential parts. Here, the stigma is above the anthers. Nature 
seems to be trying to prevent something. What is it? That is 
just it, she doesn't want the pollen to reach the stigma on the 
same parent plant. She tries to prevent self-pollination usually. 
There are instances, however, in which self-pollination seems to 
do no harm to the succeeding plants. In the great majority of 
cases continual self-pollination would result in less vigorous plants 
as new ones were formed. Since the union of a pollen grain and an 
ovule is necessary for the new seed pollen must travel from one 
flower to another. Observe the legs of this honeybee. What do 
you see ? You have all noticed bees at work ; what are they do- 
ing continually? What might they carry from flower to flower? 
To-morrow we will follow a bee and see how many flowers she visits. 
This is what Nature desires and this process of fertilizing the ovules 
of one flower with the pollen of another is called cross-fertilization. 
This makes the succeeding plants stronger. Many flowers have 
peculiar arrangements to insure cross-fertilization. (See cuts, page 
306, Osterhout's '' Experiments with Plants." Use footnote.) 



THE FLOWER 41 

(Take class on a field excursion to observe adaptations to insure 
fertilization. Study the relation of other animals to pollination.) 

The Nectar and the Bright Corolla Attract Insects. — Why does 
the bee visit so many flowers? Yes, he is after nectar and pollen. 
How does she know where the nectar and pollen are ? How do you 
know of the bargains in a large department store ? Having entered 
the store how may you readily locate the drug department? How 
does the flower " advertise " the presence of nectar? The insect 
having been attracted to the flower by the bright corolla, how does 
it locate the nectar? 

The Oneness of the Universe. — Thus we see how one factor 
depends upon another. The plant takes its food from the soil. 
The insects insure new plants by cross-pollination. The new plants 
feed animals and the animals and plants are eaten by us. The 
birds, as we shall learn, keep some insects from destroying plants. 

Notes 

1. There is little harm in the cautious use of animal and plant 
personification. The most interesting thing to a child is himself. 
This interest may be grafted into the matter under study. For 
example, '' How do you get your food? " " How does the plant get 
its food?" 

Personification if not carefully handled may lead to silly senti- 
mentality, such as is illustrated in the following story : " Why, 
papa, how can you cut off the limbs of that tree ? How would you 
like to have your arms cut off ? " said a boy to his father as he was 
pruning a lone fruit tree. '' What harm am I doing, and who 
suggested such things to you? " asked the father. Replied the boy, 
" Teacher says trees have life and are like animals, and, if so, doesn't 
it hurt them to cut ofT their arms? " Avoid injecting qualities into 
a flower or other plant which are not truly its attributes. 

2. The pollination of flowers gives the teacher an opportunity 
to point out the relation between the male and the female elements. 
It gives the teacher opportunity to teach the children something 
about the matter of sex which is so carefully avoided at the expense 



42 ELEMENTARY SCHOOL AGRICULTURE 

of thousands of dollars, untold misery, and many lives. Prudish- 
ness in this direction is an expensive characteristic of parents and 
teachers alike. See Dr. Eliot's very helpful article on " The Teach- 
ing of Sex Hygiene," in The Sierra Educational News for March, 
1911. 

PLANT PROPAGATION AND PLANT IMPROVEMENT 

Chapters VIII, IX, and in " Agriculture for Schools of the 
Pacific Slope " should furnish most interesting suggestions for work 
in home and school gardens. Properly presented, the topics of 
the propagation and improvement of plants cannot fail to delight 
boys and girls of the early adolescent period. 

Suggested Method of Approach. — Lesson VIII in this manual 
or the following. Review life histories of any common seed-bearing 
plants with which the pupils are familiar. What is always the end 
or fulfillment of the plant's work ? For what purpose, then, has it 
been getting and storing up food? What are seeds? What is the 
relation of the flower to the seed? Those who do not know will 
learn in this chapter on '' How Plants are Propagated." 

Read first paragraph on page 91. The last sentence touches a 
most important consideration in regulating our tree fruit crops. 
When are the blossom buds formed on apple, peach, orange, etc. ? 
Demonstrate second paragraph on page 91. 

Flower and Fruit. — Read and have pupils name parts in various 
flowers. They should also perform the experiments on pages 92 
and 93 of text. Other large flowers suitable for the emasculation 
experiment, page 92, are trillium, single rose, single poppy, single 
fuchsia, calla, canna, hibiscus, gladiolus, nasturtium, magnolia. 
Some plants bear distinct male and female flowers, for example, 
squash, corn, walnut. In these it is only necessary to cover the 
female flower in order to prevent pollination.^ * 

On page 95, paragraph 1, the authors allude to a very important 

^See the excellent chapters on " The Fertilization of Flowers " and " The 
Insect Pollinators " in " Farm Friends and Farm Foes " by C. M. Weed, 
Boston, D. C. Heath & Co. 



PLANT PROPAGATION AND IMPROVEMENT 43 

principle in tree fruit growing and one which is not always under- 
stood. If in a region where apples, cherries, plums, or peaches are 
grown, have pupils find out what varieties bear well if planted in 
uniform blocks of a single variety. It is possible that no such or- 
chards of apple and cherries will be found as it is the usual custom 
to mix or alternate varieties for the sake of cross-pollination. 

On page 98 of text paragraphs 2, 3, and 4 touch on important com- 
mercial points in fruit handling which are again treated on pages 231 
and 304. (See " The Handling of Fruit for Transportation " by 
G. H. Powell. Reprint Agriculture Yearbook. Sent free by the 
Secretary of Agriculture, Washington, D.C.) 

Testing seeds (page 99 of text) should receive more attention than 
is suggested here. The percentage of viability of seed corn, for 
example, is an important factor in its improvement. For detailed 
direction see " Exercises in Elementary Agriculture," by D. J. 
Crosby. (Price 10 cents, apply to Superintendent of Documents, 
Washington, D.C.) 

Do you know of any plants that do not make seeds? (Pupils 
may name banana, seedless orange, pomelo, apple, plum, etc.) 
How can such plants be propagated? (Pupils may suggest slips 
or cuttings, root-sprouts, budding and grafting.) 

Other Ways of Propagating. — The various experiments and 
exercises given here comprise the most valuable garden work possible, 
and every effort should be made to provide facilities for it. For 
further details of propagation by seeds and cuttings see " Ele- 
mentary Horticulture," by C. F. Palmer, Los Angeles State Normal 
School, pages 23 to 56, 50 cents ; on all phases of plant propagation 
consult " Manual of Gardening," by L. H. Bailey (The Macmillan 
Company, $2). 

How Plants are Improved. — This chapter and the one following 
may be used mejjfly as supplementary reading with discussion, or they 
may serve as a starting point for most interesting observational and 
experimental study. The great fact of variation among living things 
— that no two plants are exactly alike and that among a large number 
of wild or cultivated plants one may find some which differ a good 
deal — should be impressed by means of afield lesson or the examina- 



44 ELEMENTARY SCHOOL AGRICULTURE 

tion of specimens collected by the teacher. The value of such study 
in training the power of observation is great. Then, if followed 
by applying the principle of selection, as explained on pages 106 and 
107 of the text, an alluring field will have been thrown open to the 
pupils and some will enter and enjoy it. State Experiment Station 
(Berkeley) Circular no. 46 on page 26 suggests experiments in plant 
improvement by means of selection, the idea being that such ex- 
periments should extend over a period of at least two years, and 
preferably three or four. 

When pupils are trying to decide what crops or plants to choose 
for the experiment, lead them to look for those in which the most 
variation exists, then save seed from single plants separately and 
plant each lot of seed in a plot by itself. Repeat the selection of 
seed from single plants and watch results. Remember, it is not 
only the character of the single large flower or large head of wheat 
that determines what the next crop will be like, but the nature of 
the whole plant of which it is a part. If attempting to increase the 
yield of potatoes, it is not enough to pick out the largest or finest 
tubers from a pile. The seed potatoes must be selected when the 
plants are being dug, so as to take them from the hills that ijield the 
most tubers. Potatoes also occasionally " set seed." Luther Bur- 
bank secured the Burbank potato by planting a seed that he found 
in a seed ball in a field of Early Rose potatoes. For suggestions on 
improving California wheats teachers should read Experiment 
Station Bulletin No. 211, " How to Improve California Wheats," 
by G. W. Shaw, Berkeley, Cal. 

It will hardly be possible to attempt cross-pollination experi- 
ments in the school garden. But there is no reason why the bright 
boy or girl who wishes to try it at home should not be encouraged 
to do so. When frost occurs or there are epidemics of plant diseases 
such as potato or tomato blight, alfalfa rust or leaf spot, wheat rust or 
smut, asparagus rust, etc., it would be worth while to have pupils 
look through the damaged fields and mark plants that have escaped 
injury. Disease-resistant or hardy varieties are sometimes started 
in this way. (See page 124 of text.) 

Poor Crops and How to Get Better Ones. — The first part of 



PLANT PROPAGATION AND IMPROVEMENT 45 

Chapter XI (pages 125 to 131) deals with principles of the greatest 
importance in the business of making agriculture pay. The average 
American farmer is neglecting some of these fundamental principles. 
That is why the United States produces so much less to the acre 
than European countries. Note the comparison in the table given 
below : — 

BUSHELS PER ACRE * 

_ Eight tt 

• Crop Foreign United 

Countries otates 

Wheat 28.42 12.5 

Rye 24.5 12.4 

Oats 43.5 31.9 

Barley 34.9 26.8 

Potatoes 180.23 93.0 

A few years ago wheat was grown in many sections where people 
think it cannot be raised profitably now. It is said that the soil is 
'' worn out," and that only rye or barley will pay, because such a 
small yield of wheat per acre is obtained. It is probable that the 
farmers who say this are neglecting three important principles. 
They have usually been plowing shallow and to about the same 
depth (page 127 of text) and have tried to grow nothing but wheat 
year after year (page 126 of text). These two practices have resulted 
in loss of humus (page 128 of text) which means less plant food and a 
soil that bakes and turns up in clods when plowed instead of being 
friable. 

Now what should these farmers do? If their soil is like that of 
most semiarid regions {i.e. uniform to a depth of one foot more) 
they should plow deeper some years. Even this one change in 
practice will usually bring an increased yield. (Note warning, 
bottom of page 127 of text.) Then if a crop of field peas or vetch is 
grown and plowed under in the spring, the soil will be greatly bene- 
fited by this addition of humus, as the increased yield will show. 
This is the simplest kind of crop rotation. (Cf. Lesson VI in this 
manual.) But even this may not be considered practicable by the 
man who is ranching on an extensive scale. It is the intensive farmer 

1 From U. S. Census of 1900. 



46 ELEMENTARY SCHOOL AGRICULTURE 

who is content to handle a smaller tract of land, but would handle 
it scientifically, who will practice regular rotation of crops as ex- 
plained on pages 125 and 126. Such farmers will, of course, depend 
upon other products beside wheat or the staple crop of the region. 
They may have an alfalfa field which lasts for several years and 
supplies hay and pasture for stock. (See " Types of Farming in 
the United States," by W. J. Spillman, Reprint from Yearbook of 
Agriculture and " Replanning a Farm for Profit," by Smith and 
Froley, Farmers' Bulletin 370. Both sent free by Secretary of 
Agriculture, Washington, D.C.) 

In all the above considerations, as also in the treatment of "drain- 
age " and " alkali soils " the teacher must be guided by local con- 
ditions and practice among the farmers. Therefore, it is highly 
important before allowing the class to take up this portion of the 
book that the teacher should make a personal study among the 
farms of the region, learning the principal types of soil and how they 
are handled in growing grain, alfalfa, beets, beans, fruit, or other 
staple crops. Results of far-reaching importance can be secured 
by planning the school garden experiments so as to demonstrate 
to the pupils what is right and wrong in the culture of some crop 
grown in the locality. When in doubt as to what is the best practice 
consult several successful farmers, and if still in doubt, write to the 
Agricultural Experiment Station at Berkeley, for information. 

Fertilization and Fertilizers. — There may be a good many points 
in connection with the subject of fertilizers about which teachers 
are uncertain or at a loss to know what is best. But there is one 
proposition concerning which they need have no fear of going wrong, 
and that is the importance of the correct use of farmyard manure. 
This is well set forth in the text (Chapter XII), and it is our pur- 
pose merely to supplement it with a few suggestions. America is 
known as a wasteful nation and the Western states are called the 
most profligate of natural resources. On the other hand, the thrifti- 
ness of the Swiss peasant is sometimes measured by the size of the 
manure pile. This is merely the compost heap recommended on 
page 140 of the text. There should be a place for the compost heap 
in connection with every school garden and the pupils should be 
taught to turn all waste animal and vegetable matter into fertilizers. 



AN INSECT LESSON 47 

The value of native leguminous plants as hosts for nitrogen- 
fixing bacteria makes an interesting observational and experimental 
study. The problem-question would be something like this: 
Farmers now buy seed of Hairy Vetch and Canadian Field Pea and 
sow them for green manure crops. Have we any wild legumes 
growing hereabouts that will do as well or better? Have pupils 
bring fresh specimens of all the native clovers, lupines, vetches, and 
peas they can find. Examine for number and size of root nodules. 
(Page 142 of text. Fig. 75.) Specimens should be carefully dug up 
and the soil shaken or washed from the roots. After deciding which 
kinds bear the most nodules pupils may locate more plants and 
gather the seed when it is ripe. This can be planted in a plot next 
year alongside a plot of Hairy Vetch or Canadian Field Pea. The 
green crops should be spaded under at blossom time and a little 
later a crop of lettuce may be set out on each and on a third plot 
that has had no green manure and no stable manure. Compare 
the crops of lettuce raised on the three plots. 

The use of commercial fertilizers is a question of growing impor- 
tance. The relative value of nitrates, phosphates, and potash salts 
and of various combinations of these compounds may be shown 
by demonstration or observation plots. By corresponding with 
some fertilizer company the teacher or clerk can secure a few 
pounds of each of the three essential ingredients in commercial 
fertilizers and the teacher can lay off a series of plots, have the class 
spade in the fertilizer, and plant some staple crop. If the soil is 
heavy clay or adobe, an experiment in liming may well be made. 
Try different quantities on the same sized plots so as to determine 
the amount per square rod that will bring your soil into best tilth. 



LESSON IX 

AN INSECT LESSON 

Unit of Instruction. — The cabbage aphis. 

General Topic Aim. — To interest the children in insect life 
through the cabbage aphis, since insects make one element in their 



48 ELEMENTARY SCHOOL AGRICULTURE 

environment which must be reckoned with; to teach the relation 
between insect Ufe and other Ufe. 

Specific Lesson Aim. — To teach the children to recognize the 
cabbage aphis ; to teach its economic status ; to determine a method 
of prevention and control. 

Children's Aim. — ''We are going to try to save our cabbages by- 
spraying to kill the aphides." 

Lesson 1. — Development of Lesson. 

The Business of the Aphis and All Insect Life. — Children, what is 
your father's business? Very good. Why does your father sell 
groceries, May? What does he want with the money? Then you 
believe that the business of your father is to obtain food for himself, 
you, and the rest of his family ? Look at the aphides closely. What 
is the main business of the aphides ? What are they doing ? What 
is their food? 

Insects Known by Their Work. — Look at your individual plants 
closely and compare with these plants that are unaffected. What 
differences do you notice? Look at these other cabbage leaves 
free from aphides. Did insects similar to the aphides attack these ? 
How do you know, Fred? " Because the aphides suck their food 
while these cabbage leaves have been eaten." 

Manner of Getting Food and Study of Mouth Parts. — How are 
they getting food from the cabbage leaves? You may each take 
one of the aphides. With these magnifying glasses look closely at 
the mouth parts. What do you find ? What other insect that has 
such a piercing tube for part of its mouth bothers us in summer 
evenings ? How does the mosquito get its food ? Now tell me how 
the aphides are getting the food from the plants. You may each 
take one of these hectograph copies showing an aphis at work. 

Method of Control Determined by the Mouth Parts. — Knowing 
how these insects get their food, how shall we kill them? It would 
be useless to put poison on the leaves as Albert has explained, and 
John has told us that poison placed in the sap would kill the trees. 
If we desired to kill the mosquitoes, it would be useless to put poison 
on our hands and decidedly dangerous to poison our blood, so we 
kill them with direct slapping or direct contact. 



AN INSECT LESSON 49 

Spraying. — We shall kill these aphides by " striking " or 
*' slapping " them directly with kerosene and water. You have 
probably watched your father put kerosene on a rusty bolt to cut 
the rust in order to loosen the nut, and you know how kerosene 
must penetrate the smallest places. Insects breathe, as Fannie 
has told us, through spiracles, or little openings,' in their bodies. 
The kerosene suffocates the insects. 

Making the Spray. — As you have noticed, I have mixed one 
part of kerosene to fifteen of water. Let us drop some upon these 
aphides. They do not like it. Now watch while I spray my cab- 
bages, then you may spray yours. Be careful in spraying not to 
waste the spray. Why? Kerosene is not only expensive but too 
much of it will kill young trees. It is a good plan to spray on 
bright days. Why? 

Succeeding Lessons 

Lesson 2. — Increase and dispersal of the aphides. 

Lesson 3. — iVdaptations, enemies, protective coloration, etc. 

Lesson 4. — Comj^arison of other aphides and insects to the type. 

Lesson 5. — A visit to surrounding gardens in order to compare 
the gardener's methods with those of the class. Estimate the 
amount of damage done by the insects. 

Notes 

This lesson, or one similar to it, should be taken up only as the 
aphides begin to attack the cabbages. 

The immediate aim is control, so the steps in the lesson should be 
determined by this fact. It is often necessary, at the start, to study 
the life history of an insect in order to determine the vulnerable 
spot. If this is known, the steps in the lesson should be (1) study 
of mouth parts, (2) method of control, (3) application of the 
methods, (4) prevention. 

In following the life history of an insect or an animal such as the 
frog, by all means have the history under way in the schoolroom. 
An ordinary lamp chimney closed at the top with mosquito netting 



50 ELEMENTARY SCHOOL AGRICULTURE 

and placed in a plant pot filled with soil makes an excellent breeding 
place for insects. Do not hurry life-history study. 

It is hardly necessary to suggest to teachers the continual use of 
specimens, pictures, hectograph drawings, etc., in presenting these 
lessons. 

Under natural checks for insect life the teacher and the class are 
naturally brought in touch with the birds. The conservation of bird 
life is a vital subject to our future welfare. To encourage bird 
protection, the " sky gems " should receive careful study. The 
study should be made through field excursions. 

CHILDREN AND HEALTH 

The child is the index of the man. Upon the children rests the 
future of our country. One great birthright left to the children is 
that of good health. The school and the home should teach the 
child how to live correctly. They should conserve the clear eyes 
and the red cheeks. 

Do children need help as to hygienic conditions? Tables of 
statistics answer in the affirmative and these tables are of value in 
giving the index as to the health of the children. 

Out of 442,287 children examined for defective vision, 100,000 
were defective. Out of 458,965 children examined, 29,350 had 
defective hearing, 4518 out of 26,534 had adenoids. 

Defective eyes, defective ears, adenoids, and other defects, each 
has a special effect and they all have a common effect on the de- 
veloping child. Children are not getting a square deal. The child 
with adenoids, with defective eyes, or defective ears is scolded, 
punished, and ridiculed as an ignoramus until a sweet disposition 
is soured, the faith of the child-heart is blighted, and another charac- 
ter is twisted. The school, and in many cases the home, with their 
steam-roller method, produce another candidate for the juvenile 
court. The great majority of children who pass through the 
juvenile court are physically defective. 

The home and the school should work hand in hand in this matter. 
Just as the home in so many cases is failing to give the child its 



HYGIENE 51 

health right, so is the school. We have much reason to be optimistic, 
for there is a tendency in the right direction for better health con- 
ditions in the school. Medical supervisors are in charge in many 
cities. However, the work of these men should not be so much to 
tell the boy that his hearing is defective as to prevent him from 
becoming thus deficient. To work not so much with the abnormal 
child as to prevent the abnormal child. In other words, teach the 
parents at home and the children at school how to get fresh air, how 
to eat and bathe correctly, how to prevent the hundred and one minor 
ailments which twist the otherwise normal development. If one 
could but look into the mouths of hundreds of children, it would 
open one's eyes to the inefficiency that we sow as a race between 
the ages of one and fifteen. We would not treat colts as we do 
children. We would not turn colts into an alfalfa patch, yet we let 
children roam as they please from cheap candy to coffee and hot 
cakes, from the community drinking cup to public places laden with 
poisonous air. Habits are thus formed which produce not only 
uncleanly mouths but place a continuous strain upon the system, 
paid for later in terms of dull eyes, white cheeks, and low morals. 

It is because of the urgent need that teachers should know how 
to improve their pupils' health that the following suggestions are 
included in this manual. 

LESSON X 
HYGIENE 

In dealing with children one must (1) make them feel the need 
of the work, (2) use active, living material, (3) give opportunity for 
motor expression. 

Introduce the hygienic work with bacteria in mass effect, avoid- 
ing the use of the microscope. 

Bring a mushroom to class and study its general make-up. Draw 
attention to the spores, countless in number. Blow some of the 
spores into space, noting their disappearance. In two dishes, one 
exposed to the air, place moist bread. Observe from day to day. 



52 ELEMENTARY SCHOOL AGRICULTURE 

This demonstration draws the attention of the children to the fact 
that the atmosphere is filled with minute germs. 

The Hygiene of the Individual. — Prepare gelatin cultures as 
follows : To an eight-ounce bottle three fourths full of water add 
two tablespoonfuls of ordinary cooking gelatin and a drop or two 
of strained honey. Place the bottle in boiling water until all solids 
are in solution. Add with a stirring rod just enough ammonia to 
make the solution basic in reaction (turns red litmus paper blue). 

1. Sterilize test tubes, bottles, petri dishes, etc., which are to 
hold the cultures. A sterilizer may be made cheaply as follows : 
Place in the bottom of an ordinary tin pail, wire netting with the 
corners bent down so as to raise the netting two or three inches from 
the bottom. Add water to the depth of one and one half to two 
inches. Place apparatus to be sterilized on this netting in the pail, 
cover, and set over a flame. Sterihze for thirty minutes. Pour 
the gelatin into the test tubes, etc., and sterilize. To be absolutely 
sure of pure cultures sterilize for thirty minutes on three different 
days. Bacteria in the spore stage are very resistant. Let the 
children do most of this work. Let the culture medium cool. 
Sterilize a knitting needle or a hairpin by holding over a flame, 
rub across the teeth, remove the cotton plug of a tube, stab quickly 
into the test tube containing the gelatin medium, withdraw, and 
plug again with cotton. (See page 251 in text.) In a similar man- 
ner make " stab " cultures from the finger nails, from different 
places on the skin, from lead pencils and the many other instru- 
ments that are put into the mouth. 

Press the lips to a gelatin medium in a petri dish, cover, and set 
aside. Touch the fingers to a similar preparation, wash the fingers, 
and again touch a gelatin preparation. 

In a few days the culture medium will be filled with bacterial 
growth, impressing upon the children the need of cleanliness and 
other hygienic measures. The cultures from the teeth and lips, lead 
pencils, etc., point the way to mouth hygiene. Too much of one's 
environment goes into the mouth. Children are eating too many 
carbohydrates, too many soft foods. These ferment in the stomach 
and keep the teeth bathed in an acid environment, producing early 



HYGIENE 53 

decay. Forty-five children out of sixty questioned had eaten hot 
cakes, sirup, and mush for breakfast. 

The cultures made from the fingers point to cleanliness of the skin, 
etc. 

2. Add a little saliva and water to a test tube containing a piece 
of boiled potato the size of the thumb nail. Substitute in another 
test tube the same amount of potato carefully broken up. Keep 
both tubes at body temperature (95 to 100 degrees Fahrenheit). 
In a few hours test both for sugar. For this purpose use Fehling's 
Solution, which you can buy from a druggist. It should be freshly 
made up. Pour off the water and saliva, add a little of the Fehling's 
Solution, and heat for two or three minutes ; then set aside. A 
reddish sediment indicates the presence of sugar. It may not ap- 
pear at once. 

The main reason for careful mastication is to present a large sur- 
face for the action of diastase (the active principle in saliva), in 
changing starch to sugar. 

3. Prepare a flat bottle with gelatin culture medium. Catch 
a house fly and let it walk about on the culture medium. Observe 
results from day to day. Such a demonstration is more eloquent 
than days of talking about the harmfulness of the house fly. 
Avoid letting air into the bottle. (See page 263 in text.) 

Bacteria are so closely related to the health and happiness of the 
individual that each class should spend at least two weeks of its 
school life in their study. 

4. In a previous lesson you developed the needs of animals 
and hinted to the class that you wished to find if the children were 
getting air, food, sunshine, and warmth in a hygienic manner. 
Question the children as to the ventilation of their sleeping rooms 
at night and ask yourself if the schoolroom is properly ventilated. 
Very likely the air cultures answer this question in the negative. 
Show the children that oxidation in the animal means life. Answers 
to questions relative to food consumption invariably indicate un- 
proper food. Carbohydrates and soft foods predominate in the diet. 

The following questions properly answered will index the life 
and environment of the children. 



54 ELEMENTARY SCHOOL AGRICULTURE 

Questions 

1. Do you sleep on a feather bed or a mattress ? 2. Do you sleep 
between blankets or sheets? 3. How many windows in the bed- 
room are open each night and how far open? 4. Do you sleep in 
your undergarments? 5. Do you take a cold bath in the morning? 

6. Do you lie abed in the morning, or rise at an early hour regularly ? 

7. Do you rinse out your mouth, clean your teeth, and drink a 
good deal of water in the morning? 8. What do you eat for break- 
fast ? What do you drink ? How long does it take you to eat your 
breakfast? 9. Do you play games outside with the other children ? 
10. Is your schoolroom well ventilated? 11. Does your teacher 
open the windows at recess? 12. Is a dry broom used in sweeping 
the schoolroom? 13. Are the desks dusted with a dry duster? 
14. Is your desk too large or too small for you? 15. Does enough 
light fall upon your desk? 16. Where do you get drinking water 
at school and how? 

These questions are suggestive only. For a more complete set see 
Dr. Allen's " Civics and Health," or Dr. Hoag's " Health Index of 
Children." 

Be sure that the studies of bacterial cultures are applied in the 
direction of conduct. 

LESSON XI 
STUDY OF THE WEATHER 

Unit of Instruction. — The weather. 

General Topic Aims. — The relationship existing between the 
weather and plant and animal life; the value of the system of 
weather bureaus. 

Specific Lesson Aims. — (These aims are to be realized in a series 
of lessons.) (1) To make and to collect apparatus for the bureau 
(Write to Washington, D.C., for " The Weather Bureau and the 
Public Schools " by J. R. Weeks — reprint of year 1907 ; also 
ask the Kansas State Agricultural College, Manhattan, Kansas, 
for a leaflet on " Some Weather Studies " issued in September, 1909), 



STUDY OF THE WEATHER 55 

(2) to elect the weather prophet, (3) to record weather changes and 
condition of plant and animal life, (4) to study the forces working 
upon the different pieces of apparatus (the weather bureau may- 
unify a general elementary science course for a term's work in 
one of the higher grades), (5) to teach that since man cannot alter 
the climate of his locality his success depends upon seed selection, 
crop rotation, and conservation of moisture. 

Organize a Weather Bureau. — Select a spot near the gardens 
and erect a shelter to hold a barometer, a maximum and minimum 
thermometer, a magnetic needle, hygrometer, and a centigrade 
thermometer. At one side arrange a place for a rain gauge. Upon 
the small protecting roof place a windmill and wind vane (made by 
the boys). Much of the above apparatus can be made by the chil- 
dren. Correspond with the State Weather Observer for suggestions. 

After the apparatus is in place, ask the State Observer for a set 
of observational blanks and request that the daily weather chart be 
mailed to you. In addition to the regular readings desired by the 
state, have the children keep individual and class charts, noting 
the following points : Dates, clear or cloudy, kinds of clouds, 
amount of precipitation, air pressure, temperature of atmosphere 
and soil, presence of dew or frost, direction of wind. 

Have the children elect a weather prophet from their number 
whose duty is to predict the approaching changes in the weather. 
The predictions should be posted in the schoolroom daily. The 
girls will enjoy making the flags. See bulletin " Some Weather 
Studies." By studying the relation between clouds, pressure of 
air, winds, and by observing the state weather chart received 
daily, the children will soon become quite expert in determining 
approaching changes. 

A careful study of one month's readings will point out the relations 
that winds, clouds, etc., bear to the weather conditions and to each 
other. It will also point out the relation of weather phenomena 
to plant life, thus indicating the value of weather study as typified 
in the United States weather bureaus. 

Much time should be spent in the study of the forces that are 
grouped around and act upon the apparatus of the school bureau. 



56 ELEMENTARY SCHOOL AGRICULTURE 

Point out how man has utihzed these forces in working out his own 
comfort. He has used the wind to pump his water, pointed out by 
the small windmill ; magnetism to determine direction, illustrated 
by the needle ; pressure of air, change of temperature, etc., to save 
his fruit. Man's progress is determined by this ability to utilize 
Nature's forces in manufacturing power to reduce his own friction 
in living. 

In the study of heat (thermometer), pressure of air (barometer) 
and the other forces represented, remember that isolation of any 
subject means wasted energy. These forces should be studied to 
the end of their use in determining future conduct. That heat 
is poorly conducted by wool, as an isolated fact, means nothing, but 
if knowledge of the fact guides one in the selection of clothing, it 
means much. 

Study magnetism in connection with the magnetic needle, the 
relation of evaporation and moisture content to temperature, illus- 
trated by the hygrometer. Avoid detailed theoretical study; 
show enough of the properties of each force that the children may 
understand its nature, then demonstrate how man has worked each 
force into his welfare through machines. 

Note. — A hygrometer may be made by suspending a cloth in a 
cobalt solution. 



APPENDIX A 



Outline of Agricultural Nature-Study htj Groups 
Group I, Grades 1 and 2 



Character of Instruction 

Observation, identification, 
oral description; for general 
knowledge of immediate en- 
vironment : the weather, wild 
and cultivated plants and trees, 
insects, earthworms, wild and 
domestic animals, common birds 
and reptiles; seeds, how they 
sprout ; seed distribution ; plants, 
how they grow; bulbs grown 
in water. 



Garden Phase 

School garden, individual plots. 
Plant and grow common, hardy, 
large-seeded vegetables, such 
as radishes, dwarf peas, beets, 
onions from sets, and one or 
two quick-growing flowers, such 
as dwarf nasturtiums, dwarf 
sweet peas, four-o'clocks. Dem- 
onstration lessons in plant- 
ing and cultivating given by 
teacher. 



Group II, Grades 3 to 5 

Character of Instruction Garden Phase 



Observation and comparison, 
practice in identification, oral 
and written description. Add to 
general knowledge and specialize 
in correlation with home geog- 
raphy. Observe wild and culti- 
vated plants and trees, "dry- 
weather" plants, pond plants, 
economic plants and their uses ; 
mammals, birds, fish, the mos- 
quito and other economic in- 
sects; physical nature study. 



School garden, individual plots, 
and home garden. 

(a) Plant and grow vegetables 
and flowers requiring more skill 
than those recommended for 
Group I. (h) Plant and grow 
typical crop plants of the region, 
giving some attention to varieties, 
harvesting, and methods of hand- 
ling raw materials, (c) Begin ex- 
perimental study of tree growing 
and plant propagation in the 



1 Adapted from "Suggestions for Garden Work in California Schools, 
Circular 46, Agricultural Experiment Station, Berkeley, Cal. 

57 



58 



APPENDIX A 



Begin organization of school or 
class "Nature-study clubs" in 
the fifth grade, making a "club 
meeting" of the nature-study 
period. Have reports on the 
experiments in tree growing and 
plant propagation in home and 
school gardens, and any other 
nature-study topics. 



fifth grade, (d) Encourage the 
collection of native plants, 
shrubs, and trees for the school 
garden (community plot) or 
home gardens. This phase de- 
serves more attention. Do not 
hesitate because you do not 
know botanical names. Get ac- 
quainted with the plants and use 
common names. 



Group III, Grades 6 to 8 



Character of Instruction 

Observation, comparison, judg- 
ment. Study objects, as above, 
within and beyond horizon of 
children's observation ; intro- 
duce bulletins, textbooks, and 
reference-books as sources of in- 
formation, particularly as fol- 
lows : — 

For the sixth grade, U. S. D. A. 
bulletins and circulars on plant 
propagation, plant improvement, 
and forestry. 

For the seventh grade, texts 
and bulletins on agriculture and 
horticulture. 

For the eighth grade, texts, 
bulletins, and laboratory work 
on crop and animal production, 
farm machinery and buildings. 

Emphasize outdoor and indoor 
experimental work in sixth and 
seventh grades. 

The comparative study of root 
systems of crop plants may be 
made a valuable indoor adjunct 



Garden Phase 

School and home gardens. 

Sixth Grade : (a) Continue 
study of plant propagation, both 
in individual plots and the com- 
munity nursery, where seedlings 
and cuttings for budding and 
grafting should have been started 
the previous year. (6) Encour- 
age pupils to experiment at home 
and to make observations and 
reports in connection with their 
indoor study or club meetings. 
Conduct excursions. (c) Re- 
serve "problem plots" for the 
purpose of settling disputed 
questions or giving demonstra- 
tions. Or (d) crop improve- 
ment through seed selection may 
be the chief line of study for the 
year with plant propagation and 
forestry subordinate. 

Seventh Grade : (a) Applica- 
tion of indoor experimental study 
in soils and plant growth to 
problems in irrigation, cultiva- 



APPENDIX B 



59 



of the outdoor work in these 
grades. 

Note. — It will be recognized 
that the work suggested for 
grammar grades is not all ob- 
servational study. But it is in- 
tended that nature-study ideals 
shall obtain and that the nature- 
study method shall be used as 
far as practicable. The value 
of experimental work, doing, see- 
ing, and inferring by the pupils 
themselves, cannot be overem- 
pjiasized, providing the course 
o^.' experiments is well planned 
8,nd consistently carried out. 



tion, fertilizing, crop rotation, 
seed and soil inoculation, (b) 
Continue or begin work in crop 
improvement or amelioration of 
some wild plant, (c) Encourage 
pupils to grow crops and domes- 
tic animals at home, keeping 
account of labor, fertihzers, 
feed, gross and net returns. 

Eighth Grade : Experimental 
work of Seventh Grade con- 
tinued. If the study of crop or 
plant improvement has been 
successfully introduced, pupils 
of this grade will wish to continue 
their experiments at home. 



APPENDIX B 



Plants that Thrive with Comparatively Large Amounts of Water * 
Vegetables 



Name Time to plant 

Artichoke — Seeds, Jan.-Feb. (in boxes) 
Artichoke — Roots, Nov.-Mar. . . 
Asparagus — Seeds, Feb.-Mar. (in beds) 

Asparagus — Roots, March 

Beans (string) — Feb. -Apr. after frost . 

Beets — Aug.-Oct., Jan.-Apr 

Broccoli — Same as spring or winter cabbage. 
Brussels sprouts — Same as last. 
Cabbage — For early spring, Sept.-Oct. 
Cabbage — For summer and fall, Feb.-Mar. 

Cabbage — For winter, June- Aug 4-5 months 

Cauliflower — Same as spring and winter cabbage. 

Carrot — Any month except June and July . 4-6 months 

Celery — Feb. -Apr. (in boxes) 6-8 months 

^From " Suggestions for Garden Work in California Schools," Circular 46, 
Agricultural Experiment Station, Berkeley, Cal. 



How long to grow 
1 year 
1 year 
2-3 years 
9-12 months 
2-3 months 
3-5 months 



3-7 months 
3-4 months 



60 



APPENDIX B 



Vegetables (Continued) 

Name Time to plant How long to grow 

Celeriac — Same as celery. 
Chard — Same as beet. 

Chive (Give) — Same as onion ; sets or clumps. 

Corn (sweet) — Mar.-June, Aug.-Sept. . . . 2-3 months 
CoUards — Same as summer cabbage. 

Corn-salad — Aug.-Oct., Jan.-Apr 6-8 months 

Cucumber — Mar .-May 2 months 

Endive — Aug.-Apr 6-8 months 

Garlic — Nov.-Mar., sets 6-8 months 

Kale (Borecole) — Aug.-May 4-6 months 

Kohlrabi — Aug.-Nov., Jan.-Apr 4 months 

Leek — Sept.-May 6 months 

Lettuce — Aug.-May 4-6 weeks 

Okra (Gumbo) — Mar.-May ...... 2-3 months 

Onion — Seed, Feb.-May, Aug.-Nov. . . . 9-12 months 

Onion — Sets, Oct.-Apr. 2-3 months 

Parsley — Aug.-May 2 months 

Parsnip — Aug.-Nov., Feb.-Apr 8-16 months 

Peas — Every month 2-5 months 

Peppergrass (Cress) — Aug.-May 4-6 weeks 

Potato, Irish — Plants, Feb.-May, Aug.-Sept. 2-4 months 

Potato, Sweet — Plants, Apr.-May .... 3-4 months 

Radish — Every month 1-2 months 

Radish (winter) — Aug.-Sept 4 months 

Rhubarb — Plants, Nov.-Apr 1 year 

Salsify — Feb.-Apr 6-8 months 

Spinach. — Every month 6-10 weeks 

Sweet Potato — Plants, Apr.-June .... 4-6 months 

Tomato — Seeds, Feb.-Apr 3-5 months 

Tomato — Plants, Mar.-May 3-5 months 

Turnips — Aug.-Nov., Feb.-Apr 3 months 

Annual Flowers 
Name Time to plant How long to grow 
Aster — Jan.-Feb. (boxes), Mar.-Apr., Aug.- 
Oct 5-7 months 

Balloon Vine — Mar.-Apr., after frost . . . Rapid climber 



APPENDIX B 61 

Balsam — Feb.-Mar 4 months 

Bean (Scarlet Runner) — Apr -May .... 2-3 months 

Calliopsis — Oct.-May 3-4 months 

Chrysanthemum — Feb.-Mar 3-5 months 

Clarkia — Sept.-Nov., Feb.-Mar 4 months 

Collinsia — Sept.-Nov., Feb.-Mar 3 months 

Coreopsis — Sept.-Nov 8-10 months 

Cosmos — Oct.-June 3-4 months 

Dianthus (Pinks) — Sept.-Oct. (beds) ... 3 months 

Dianthus — Jan.-Mar. (boxes) 3 months 

Gilliflower (see Stock). 

Godetia — Dec.-Feb 4 months 

Gypsophila muralis (Baby's Breath) — Jan.- 

-^g^j. 3-4 months 

Hyacinth — Bulbs, Sept.-Jan. ...... Spring flowering 

Japanese Hop — Mar .-Apr Rapid climber 

Larkspur — Sept.-Mar 3 months 

Lobelia (dwarf ) — Aug.-Oct., Mar .-May (boxes) 3 months 

Marigold — Jan.-Mar 4 months 

Mignonette — Sept.-Mar 2-3 months 

Mina lobatas (climber) — Feb.-Apr 6 months 

Morning Glory (climbing) — Feb.-Apr. ... 3 months 

Narcissus — Bulbs, Sept.-Jan Spring flowering 

Nemophila (Baby Blue Eyes) — Feb.-Apr. . 2-3 months 
Nigella (Love-in-a-Mist) — Sept.-Mar. ... 3 months 
Pansy — Sept.-Oct. (boxes), Jan.-Mar. ... 3-4 months 

Phlox drummondii — Sept.-Mar 3-4 months 

Platystemon (Cream Cups) — After first rains 3 months 

Poppy _ Sept.-Nov., Feb.-Mar 3-4 months 

Salpiglossis — Feb.-Apr., Sept.-Oct 3 months 

Scabiosa — Sept.-Oct. (boxes), Feb.-Apr. . . 4 months 

Snail Vine — Spring after frost 6 months 

Stock, Ten Weeks — Aug.-Sept., Jan.-Mar. 

(boxes) 3 months 

Sweet Pea — Sept.-Feb 4-6 months 

Sweet Pea — Early varieties, Aug.-Feb. ... 3-4 months 
Sweet Pea — Dwarf varieties, Sept.-Feb. . . 4-6 months 
Zinnia — Feb.-Apr • • • 3 months 



62 APPENDIX B 

Perennial Flowers 

Name Time to plant How long to grow 

Bellis (Double Daisy) — Feb.-Apr., Aug., Sept. 6-8 months 

Columbine — Sept.-Oct 9 months 

Canna — Seeds, Feb.-Mar. (boxes) ; Apr. . . 8-10 months 

Canna — Tubers, spring 2-3 months 

Canterbury Bells — Aug.-Sept., Mar. -May . 12 months 
Carnation — Sept.-Oct. (beds) ; Nov.-Apr. 

(boxes) 6-12 months 

Centauria (Dusty Miller) — Mar.-May (boxes) Ornamental plant 

Chrysanthemum — Plants, Apr. -June . . . 5-6 months 

Daisy — Sept.-May . 3 months 

Dahlia — Seeds, Jan.-Mar. (boxes) ; Apr. (beds) 7-10 months 

Dahlia — Roots, Mar.-May 5 months 

Freesia — Seeds, Feb.-Apr 2 years 

Freesia — Bulbs, Sept.-Nov 4 months 

Forge t-Me-Not — Sept.-Nov., Mar.-May . . 6 months 

Gladiolus — Seeds, Feb.-Apr 2 years 

Gladiolus — Bulbs, Sept.-Dee 3 months 

Foxglove — Sept.-Nov., Mar.-May .... 8-10 months 

Goldenrod — Seeds, Jan.-Mar 1 year 

Goldenrod — Plants (division) — Nov.- Jan. . 6 months 

Gypsophila panieulata — Jan.-Mar 4-6 months 

Heliotrope — Apr.-May (boxes) 4-6 months 

Hollyhock (biennial) — Sept.-Oct., Mar.-Apr. 12 months 
Marguerite (see Chrysanthemum). 

Passion Flower — Sept.-Mar Rapid climber 

Perennial Pea — Sept.-Mar 4-6 months 

Perennial Phlox — Sept.-Nov., Mar.-May . 6-8 months 

Perennial Poppies — Sept.-Nov., Mar.-May . 6-8 months 

Pinks, China — Mar.-Apr 3 months 

Salvia (Flowering Sage) — Feb.-Mar. (house), 

Apr.-May 6 months 

Shasta Daisy (see Chrysanthemum). 

Smilax — Seeds, Jan.-Mar. (boxes) .... 8-10 months 

Smilax — Tubers, any time 2-3 months 

Snapdragon — Aug.-Oet., Mar.-Apr. ... 3 months 

Sweet William — Aug.-Oct., Mar.-May . . 2 years 

Tulips — Bulbs, Nov.-Jan Spring flowering 



APPENDIX B 63 

Violet — Seed, Sept.-Mar ,3-4 months 

Violet — Plants, any time. 

Wallflower — Jan -Mar 6-8 months 

Plants that will Thrive with Comparatively Little Water 
Vegetables 

Name Time to plant How long to grow 

Corn (sweet) — Mar-June, Sept -Oct. (Give 

good cultivation) 

Eggplant — Mar.-Apr. (boxes) . . 
Eggplant — May-June (beds) . . . 
Melons — March to June after frosts 
Peppers (chillies) — Jan. (boxes) ; Apr. 
Pumpkin — March-June after frosts . 
Squash — March-June after frosts 



2-3 months 
3 months 

3 months 
3-4 months 

4 months 
5-6 months 
5-6 months 



Flowers 

(All annual except those labeled otherwise) 

Name Time to plant How long to grow 

Alyssum, Sweet — Oct.-Dec 2-3 months 

Australian Pea Vine — Mar.-Apr 3-4 months 

Calendula ' ' Pot Marigold ' ' — Oct.-Apr. . . 2-3 months 

Candytuft — Oct.-May 3-4 months 

Castor Bean (P) — Mar .-June 3 months 

Centaurea (Corn Flower) — Feb.-May, Aug.- 

Qg|- 3 months 

CoUinsia — Sept.-Mar 2-3 months 

Eschscholtzia (California Poppy) — Sept.-Mar. 3 months 

Feverfew (P) — Oct.-Dec 6 months 

Flax, Scarlet — Sept.-Oct., Feb.-May . . . 3 months 

Four-o'Clock — Sept.-Mar 2-4 months 

Gaillardia — Mar.-May 4 months 

Geranium (P) — Seed, Sept.-Nov. .... 4-6 months 
Geranium — Cuttings, any time. 

Gilia- Sept.-Nov 3-4 months 

Godetia — Oct.-Dec 3 months 

Lavender (P) — Cuttings, Nov.-Feb. . . . 2 years 



64 APPENDIX C 

Flowers (Continued) 
Name Time to grow How long to grow 

Lippia repens (P), (Lawn plant) — Seeds, Oct.- 

Peb 6 months 

Lippia repens (P) — Plants (rooted cuttings), 

any time. 

Lupins (A & P) — Oct.-Dec 3 months 

Morning Glory (dwarf) — Feb -Apr. ... 2-3 months 

Nasturtium — Sept.-Apr 2 months 

Portulaca — Feb. -Apr 2| months 

Petunia — Feb.-Apr. (after frost) .... 3 months 

Sunflower — Any time 3 months 

Pentstemon (P) — Oct.-Dec 4—6 months 

Plumbago (P) — Plants any time Bush or climber 

Salvia (Scarlet Sage) — Apr.-May; Sept. 

(boxes) ; Feb. (house) 4-6 months 

Solanum jasminoides (P), (Potato Vine) — 

Plants, any time 10-20 feet 

Verbena (mostly P) — Seeds, Oct.-Mar. (Dec- 

Feb. in boxes) ; cuttings, Sept.-Mar. . . 4-5 months 

APPENDIX C 
Best Reference Books 

Although some of the following works have been mentioned in the 
body of this book, it was thought best to indicate a few of the best 
books for the teacher's reference shelf. Unless otherwise indicated 
the publishers are The Macmillan Company. 

Osterhout. — "Experiments with Plants." 

Bailey. — "Manual of Gardening." 

Bailey. — "Lessons with Plants." 

Weed. — "Farm Friends and Farm Foes." D. C. Heath & Co. 

Valentine. — "How to keep Hens for Profit." 

Lyon. — "How to keep Bees for Profit." 

King. — "The Soil." 

Lipman. — "Bacteria in Relation to Country Life." 

Stevens, Butler. — "A Practical Arithmetic." Scribners. 

Hoag. — "Health and Index of Children." Whitaker-Ray-Wig- 
gin Co. 



APPENDIX D 65 

APPENDIX D 
Reference Lists of Bulletins and Circulars 

(1) United States Department of Agriculture. Apply to Secre- 
tary of Agriculture, Washington, D.C., for List of Free Publications 
of the Department. Also ask to have your name placed upon the 
mailing list for the "Monthly List of Publications." 

(2) Agricultural Experiment Station, Berkeley, California. Apply 
to the Director for the most recent bulletin. On the last page will 
be given a complete list of all available bulletins and circulars issued 
by the station. 



'T^HE following pages contain advertisements of Macmil- 
lan books by the same author or on kindred subjects 



SOILS 

THEIR FORMATION, PROPERTIES, COMPOSITION, AND RELATIONS TO 
CLIMATE AND PLANT GROWTH IN THE HUMID AND ARID REGIONS 

By E. W. Hilgard, Ph.D., LL.D. 

Professor of Agriculture in the University of California, and Director of 
the California Agriculture Experiment Station. 

Cloth, 8vo, 393 pages, $4.00 net 
This work, originally designed as a text-book for the writer's University 
classes in agriculture, has been considerably expanded in response to a wide- 
spread demand for a book which should present the principles and practices 
of agriculture, not only in connection with the humid regions as has mostly 
been done in existing works, but equally so in respect to the arid regions. 
The important and often critical differences between the soil conditions of 
the two regions and of the corresponding differences in practice are only 
casually referred to in most existing works. This painful gap in agricultural 
literature Dr. Hilgard fills upon the basis of a prolonged personal experience 
both in the humid and arid regions of the United States. 

In order to adapt the volume to popular as well as professional readers the 
text is printed in two different kinds of type. The larger contains the matter 
which is essential to any intelligent student of the subject and which will be 
found interesting by any farmer or man with a country place. In the smaller 
type is contained the more strictly scientific and technical matter. 

" Dr. Hilgard, by reason of his special and long-continued attention to the 
chemistry of soils, and his intimate acquaintance with the subject, was pecu- 
liarly well fitted for the task to which he applied himself in the preparation 
of the present work. It is concise and yet exhaustive. Every phase of the 
topic is thoroughly treated. Soils are discussed with relation to their origin, 
properties, and composition as well as to the climate and their adaptability to 
various crops and plant growths; also with regard to irrigation and fertiliza- 
tion. A vast amount of scientific knowledge has been compressed into the 
book, set forth in lucid style so as to be readily understood by any intelligent 
reader. Technical terms are as far as possible avoided and the volume is 
thoroughly practical. No farmer or fruit grower can afford to be without the 
information contained in Soils. And while the work is necessarily expensive, 
it is well worth the price." — The Evening Bee, Sacramento. 



PUBLISHED BY 

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

64-66 Fifth Avenue, New York 



EXPERIMENTS WITH PLANTS 
By W. J. V. Osterhout, Ph.D. 

Assistant Professor of Botany in the University of California. 

Illustrated. Cloth, i2mo, $1.2^ net 

This book contains a great variety of experiments, — over two hundred and 
fifty in number, — all of them simple and easily performed by the use of uten- 
sils to be found in most homes — or which can be procured in the ordinary 
grocery or drug store, and the directions for the conduct of each experiment 
are so simple and clear that they will tempt the young student on the farm to 
try for their solution. These experiments have all been chosen because of their 
practical character, and in all cases the application of the experiment is made 
to farming, gardening, hygiene, sanitation, and to everyday life generally. 
The experiments are so arranged that each one leads naturally to the one 
next following, and the general order of topics is the one suggested by observ- 
ing the growth of a plant. Especial attention is given in the book to certain 
important topics hitherto neglected; for example, soil, bacteria, diseases of 
plants, and plant-breeding. The central idea throughout the work has been 
to select significant experiments; that is, those which illustrate fundamental 
laws and far-reaching principles, and then to simplify the experiment to the 
utmost. 

The illustrations, which number over two hundred and fifty, are all original 
and interesting. 

"Numerous questions which young people ask about plants are best an- 
swered by themselves, according to Professor W. J. V. Osterhout of the Uni- 
versity of California. To put them in the way of doing this so far as possible 
is the purpose, the author states, of a comprehensive and w^ell-written book 
which he has just given the public. The book is particularly well adapted to 
the classroom, but the nature of its contents makes it of interest to everybody 
who is interested in a detailed study of plant life. . . . The book is so pro- 
fusely illustrated and the text of such an interesting nature that it is an educa- 
tion in the development and behavior of plants, merely to read through the 
volume." — Suburban Life. 



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64-66 Fifth Avenue, New York 



BOOKS ON AGRICULTURE 



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Thomas F. Hunt's How to Choose a Farm $i 75 net 

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On Tillage, etc. 

F. H. King's The Soil 1 cq net 

Isaac P. Roberts' The Fertility of the Land i 50 net 

Elwood Mead's Irrigation Institutions i 25 net 

F. H. King's Irrigation and Drainage i 50 net 

William E. Smythe's The Conquest of Arid America . . . i 50 net 

Edward B. Voorhees" Fertilizers i 25 net 

Edward B. Voorhees' Forage Crops i 50 net 

H. Snyder's Chemistry of Plant and Animal Life . . . i 25 net 

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L, H. Bailey's Manual of Gardening 2 00 net 

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ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE 



BY 



G. F. WARREN 

Professor of Farm Management and Farm Crops, New York State College 
of Agriculture, at Cornell University 

Cloth^ i2mo, price $i.io net 

This book is designed for use in high schools, academies, and 
normal schools, and in colleges when only a short time can be 
given to the subject. It is also useful to the farmer or general 
reader who desires a brief survey of agriculture. 

The purpose of the book is to make the teaching of agricul- 
ture in the existing high schools comparable in extent and 
thoroughness with the teaching of physics, mathematics, history, 
and literature. In fact, the chemistry and botany should, if 
possible, precede the agriculture as given in this book ; and the 
pupil will be all the better prepared for the subject if he comes to 
it with considerable other high-school training, for much of the 
value of the work will be conditioned on the student's maturity 
and his experience with life. The subject is not one that can 
be memorized, or even acquired in the ordinary method of 
school study ; it must relate itself to the actual work and 
business of the community in such a way as will develop the 
student's judgment of conditions and affairs. 

IN PREPARATION 
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to be included in the well-known Rural Science Series, under the general 
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